Santa Clarita Real Estate

When L.A. City Council votes, will Las Lomas Land LLC., listen?

On going range wars have come to a halt with the latest Los Angeles City council vote on March 19 where the council said a sensible NO to any additional work on the Las Lomas Land project. Amid the potential threat of lawsuits, the council did a 180 - Back in February the LA City council was unanimous in support for this project, the March 19 vote was 10-5 against.

The background on this project is a lesson in land development. Ten years back, Palmer had his eye on the dirt that encompasses the area between The City of Newhall, The Los Angeles City and The Los Angeles County.

Las Lomas had options to buy on several parcels, involving about 7 individual owners, by 2007 Las Lomas had acquired all but 266 acres of the proposed project area. In December of 2003 Las Lomas Land submitted the application to Las Angeles County for permission to merge all individual parcels into one, the application Las Lomas Land, LLC, signed by Dan Palmer as the owner and applicant. The parcels in question are owned by an elderly couple from Van Nuys California. They state the land was optioned to Las Lomas though they had not fully executed the deal. No money had ever changed hands.

Las Lomas was met with great debate from the city of Santa Clarita, and the stance they took was a valid one, environmental concerns, increased traffic, schools, emergency personnel, public transit and services for the influx of more than 5,500 housing units. No development - for now. R.I.P. Las Lomas.

The Project Timeline:

• In 1998 Las Lomas Land, LLC began acquiring options on parcels of land in the Santa Clarita pass.
• In 2002 the project is gaining momentum. Notification is sent to the Local Agency Formation Commission of Los Angeles County that he intended to circulate a petition among the property owners to annex the 555 acres into the City of Los Angeles.
• May 28, 2002, Las Lomas Land filed a one-page Environmental Assessment Form with the Los Angeles City Planning Department. - LAFCO returned the Las Lomas annexation application to Palmer as incomplete and in need an Environmental Impact Report.
• June 18, 2002, Application to LAFCO to have the agency begins annexation proceedings.
• 2002 Las Lomas went to the City of Los Angeles planning department for assistance processing the required report.
• Los Angeles City takes lead agency as in accepting money from Las Lomas Land; city becomes obligated to continue, becoming lead in late 2002.
• December 2002 City of Santa Clarita files its own annexation application for the same area.
• Las Lomas sues city of Santa Clarita asking for a court order to stop Santa Clarita’s annexation request.
• 2003 Las Lomas applies to the county of Los Angeles Planning for permission of merging 14 parcels into one for purposes of obtaining financing.
• 2003 - 2006 With Las Lomas still forging ahead Santa Clarita requests the Local Agency Formation Commission of Los Angeles County for a sphere of influence judgment. - The sphere of influence was split right down the middle, with half going to Santa Clarita, the other half to San Fernando Valley. For a ten year period Las Lomas Land had done preliminary work on the project with the City of Santa Clarita and the county of Los Angeles.
  - - Las Lomas sues Santa Clarita - again.
• 2007 Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon put forward a motion to have the city enter into a Supplemental Fee Agreement with Las Lomas Land. - Whereby Las Lomas would pay for the staff to process the missing environmental impact report in efforts to expedite the project.
• 2008 The Signal breaks the story of Las Lomas Land not having full legal right to be submitting applications for any of the actions thus far.
• February 2008 Los Angeles City votes unanimous in support of project.
• March 19, 2008 Los Angeles city does an abrupt back up on decision to support Las Lomas Land, council votes 10-5 against continued support .