Despite Deadlock Over Figures, Santa Clarita Development Won’t Die

Negotiations between a developer and the Santa Clarita City Council over the controversial Santa Catarina condominium project have stalemated, but neither side is willing to say the project is dead just yet.

The proposed development has become the most hotly debated and contentious issue in the young city’s history.

The issue has dominated the City Council’s political agenda for weeks and has been the topic of marathon public hearings. The issue has even attracted the attention of the state attorney general’s office, which on May 21 criticized the adequacy of the project’s environmental impact report and called for the report to be redone.

The state would have to go to court, however, to compel the city to order a new environmental impact report.

The City Council discussed the project briefly Tuesday night, saying the city is standing by its latest demands to G.H. Palmer Associates, the project’s developer.

Meanwhile, Gilbert M. Archuletta, a Palmer Associates attorney, said the next move is up to the City Council.

“This is cat and mouse,” Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said of the give-and-take over the project.

Palmer Associates originally proposed building 1,452 condominiums on 135 acres in Canyon Country, north of Soledad Canyon Road and southwest of Ermine Street.

In return for city approval of the project, the company also pledged to build $55 million worth of badly needed roads that city engineers say are beyond the city’s budget.

Nearby residents denounced the proposal, saying the city was selling out to the developer.

They also charged that the project would clog streets with traffic and ruin the character of the surrounding neighborhood, which is dominated by single-family homes.

Representatives from the city and Palmer Associates, in an attempt to appease critics, drafted seven alternative plans, ranging from 385 houses to 1,292 condominiums.

On May 4 the City Council rejected the seven plans and drafted its own, which would have allowed construction of up to 800 condominiums.

Negotiations between the company and the city quickly bogged down, with developer Dan Palmer saying the council’s plan was not financially feasible.

City Manager George Caravalho, recognizing the deadlock, ordered city staff to halt all work on the project last Wednesday.

“We were not making any progress that I could see,” Caravalho told the council Tuesday night. “At this point I don’t see any viable proposal on the table.”

Archuletta said the company made a counteroffer of 1,000 units for the Santa Catarina site.

But Darcy said the counteroffer just rehashes elements of the alternative plans the council already rejected. “That offer is not acceptable to the council,” Darcy said. “It wasn’t acceptable then and it’s not acceptable now.”