Santa Clarita Growth Plan Proposes Cap of 475 Units

A citizens group that hopes to put a growth-control initiative on the ballot in Santa Clarita released a statement Monday saying the measure would allow only 475 new housing units to be built in the city a year.

Such a cap would be below present building trends in the city.

Since Santa Clarita incorporated three years ago, the City Council has approved 1,717 houses, apartments and condominiums, roughly 572 units a year, according to a recent city report. The council also approved 429 other residential units during that time, but those projects had already received preliminary approval from Los Angeles County, the report said.

The press release announcing the proposed building cap was accidentally issued two days early by members of the Citizen’s Assn. for a Responsible Residential Initiative on Growth, or CARRING. The group had planned to release a draft of the slow-growth initiative Wednesday.

John Drew, chairman of the group, would not confirm or deny the information in the press release and said the group would discuss the initiative Wednesday. Drew would only say that the figure of 475 housing units was not official.

CARRING has been working on the initiative for months, and city officials and local developers have been awaiting its release.

The press release said the initiative would allow “475 homes a year,” but it was unclear whether the figure referred to only single-family houses or all dwelling units. The release did not detail how the 475 figure was reached, but said it reflected growth trends in Los Angeles County in the 1980s.

A public opinion poll commissioned by the Santa Clarita City Council this year showed strong support for a growth-control measure in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The poll, released in June, found that 78% of those polled would strongly or somewhat support an initiative to slow growth. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.