2 Santa Clarita School Districts Sue to Block Housing Project

Two Santa Clarita Valley school districts have sued the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to block a 2,500-unit housing development in Saugus, an attorney for the districts said Tuesday.

The William S. Hart Union High School and Saugus Union Elementary School districts contend in the suit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, that the board and the county Planning Commission should not have approved the project because it will overburden the already crowded school systems.

Supervisors in December approved the 602-acre project, proposed by Shapell-Monteverde. The project, just outside the Santa Clarita city limits, calls for 1,297 houses and 1,302 condominiums and apartments east of Plum Canyon Road.

Shapell-Monteverde will still need county approval when it submits detailed plans, but the developer was guaranteed the right to complete the project over 12 years. The lawsuit also asks the court to throw out this guarantee, said Wendy H. Wiles, an attorney for the Hart and Saugus districts.

The suit is similar to one filed by the districts against the Shapell-Monteverde development approved by supervisors a year ago, Wiles said. That suit, concerning a 700-home project, argued that the supervisors should compel the developer to pay for new schools.

The first lawsuit against Shapell-Monteverde was dismissed by a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge Feb. 27. The judge agreed with county attorneys, who said the supervisors could not force developers to pay fees exceeding those already required by a state school-financing law. The Hart and Saugus districts appealed the judge’s ruling Friday, Wiles said.