The Santa Clarita Planning Commission denied a plan for homes at the former Saugus Speedway site last week, but a City Council member has made the rare move to appeal the decision on behalf of the developer.  Based on the city’s code, Councilwoman Laurene Weste didn’t need to cite a reason for her appeal of the decision, but she wanted to explain in a phone interview Monday with The Signal.  Weste said a reason she asked for the appeal was because she didn’t think people were aware of the issues behind the denial, and she wanted to have a discussion on the dais.  Weste said she felt the reasoning behind the plans’ denial was unprecedented for the city, and she wanted to inform residents.  “The state’s changing laws right and left, taking the planning and changing it right and left — so what I wanted to do was put an eye on an issue that I don’t think most people would think about,” she said.  “This was the first time I can remember in the history of this city,” she said, referring to the Planning Commission denying a plan because it didn’t have enough housing density.  “And I could be wrong, but I don’t think so,” she said, adding she’s also never heard residents come to the City Council and Planning Commission and ask for more housing in a development plan.  She said she understood what the state was trying to do with the housing laws that required or allowed for greater density based on certain circumstances — but it didn’t always make sense.  A spokesman for Integral Communities – the developer trying to get market-rate homes and a large warehouse built on the site of the Saugus swap meet – confirmed the appeal Wednesday afternoon, following the final Planning Commission hearing on their plans.  Weste’s email to planning on the project’s behalf saved the developer more than $3,500, not a significant fiscal consideration for a planned multimillion-dollar investment. But planning officials also couldn’t recall a similar situation — a council member’s appeal on behalf of a developer — in recent memory, and it may even be unprecedented in Santa Clarita.  Weste couldn’t recall a situation like it, either.  The move followed Peter Vanek, vice president of Integral, twice refusing to address the zoning concerns brought to him over the plans’ failure to meet the city’s requirements, saying the project wouldn’t work for the developer’s bottom line if it was forced to redraw plans at this stage of planning.  The zoning requirements are based around state housing laws intended to help the state meet a 2.5 million-home goal.   The Planning Commission denied the project on a 2-2 vote after Commissioners Rene Berlin and Lisa Eichman stated the project failed demonstrably to meet the requirements of the city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA.   Neither felt their concerns from the previous hearing on the project about density were addressed at last week’s follow-up hearing.   The RHNA is a plan mandated by state law for how many homes a city must be able to show it can provide, in terms of low, moderate and market-rate housing.   Based on the five-year RHNA the city had approved earlier this year, the land was supposed to be zoned for anywhere from 11 to 30 units per acre on the 35-acre lot. In that mix, per the RHNA, were supposed to be 140 moderately priced homes. The plans as proposed called for fewer than two dozen affordable homes.  If a city fails to meet its mandated housing five-year elements, according to the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, it could face lawsuits from the state, developers and third-party interests, according to a 2021 warning from a Bay Area regional government group.  The plan proposed by Integral called for 319 market-rate homes, which would have meant a special permit was needed, and the plans also didn’t call for any moderately priced homes, which also had the potential to affect plans for other properties.  To avoid potentially significant penalties from the state, the city would need to find other properties that would accommodate such housing in order to meet its goals, according to planners.   At one point, proponents brought up that if the plan failed, it could be replaced by a plan with much, much greater housing density due to those same state laws meant to encourage more housing.  The planning commissioners likened the situation to the developer “bullying” their way into getting their way with the property during the meeting.  One scenario brought up was an alternative plan being brought to them with the original maximum zoned density of 30 units per acre, with density bonuses in the event a certain low-income housing threshold is met, and the land’s proximity to a transit center. Those factors could lead to a project with a minimum of four or five times as many homes with no parking requirement due to the nearby transit center, under state law.  Commissioner Tim Burkhart said the current situation was one he didn’t like but was willing to agree to because the alternative could be worse. Commissioner Patsy Ayala was the other vote in favor, and a 2-2 tie essentially acted as a no vote.  The situation also was interesting because Commissioner Dennis Ostrom, who was appointed by Weste, helped create the potential tie by stepping down unexpectedly at the end of last month.   Ostrom said Monday he made the decision to step down after he realized his hearing issues were impacting his ability to catch all the nuances of the commission’s discussion, which he felt was important.  The Sand Canyon resident and longtime former commissioner also said, as a fan of the swap meet, he was completely convinced by the plan’s commitment to its job-creation element with respect to plans for a 126,000-square-foot warehouse on the property. He indicated Monday he would have denied the project due to a few concerns he had.  The developer had originally planned to build the community in partnership with a billion-dollar Shadowbox Studios investment in the area, but those plans came to a stop in July, according to city officials.   John Musella, a spokesman for Integral Communities, issued a statement ahead of Tuesday’s meeting that indicating it had worked with the city for more than three years on its plans before threatening to walk away after the discussion.  “After productively working for over three years with city staff, we believe we have proposed a financially viable project for the former speedway site,” according to the statement attributed to Vanek. “The project respects the heritage of the site with the inclusion of historical elements including a walking history timeline, a speedway-themed park and speedway-themed street names to mention a few. Creating this type of transit-oriented housing development adjacent to the Metrolink station provides a unique housing mix for first-time home buyers as well as 22 affordable homes.”  The City Council is expected to discuss an appointment for the vacant seat on the Planning Commission at Tuesday’s meeting.   The council is expected to take up the appeal for the mixed-use development in Saugus at its Oct. 22 meeting, due to noticing requirements.  The post Council member appeals housing call over density demand  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.