2,155-Home Project OKd in Santa Paula

The Santa Paula City Council has approved the largest housing development in city history, clearing the way for construction of 2,155 homes in a citrus-studded canyon on the city’s north end.

The council’s 4-0 vote on Wednesday allows Dallas-based Centex Homes to begin construction on about 800 acres in Fagan Canyon, one of the last large developable areas in the Santa Clara River Valley community. City Councilman John Procter abstained from voting.

The project will include two elementary schools, 50 acres of parkland and 25,000 square feet of retail space. About 1,000 acres of open space will be set aside and 325 units of affordable housing will be built.

Santa Paula leaders say the development will give a major economic boost to their cash-strapped city, eventually bringing in about $2 million annually in taxes and other revenue for the city, according to forecasts.

“This is a model project,” Councilwoman Mary Ann Krause said Thursday. “I feel it’s very important to the city’s future.”

Plans call for construction to begin in late spring or early summer of next year. The project is expected to be completed by 2014.

Project opponents, who argued for months that the development would be too big and that it would generate too much traffic and pollution, said they will soon decide whether to pursue a referendum that would put approval of the project to a public vote.

“That’s what we’ve wanted all along, to give the vote to the people,” said John Wisda, a Santa Paula real estate agent who heads an opposition group.