Soledad Village to be Piazza Metro

The Santa Clarita City Council held the public hearing for the new development Soledad Village yesterday evening. The development is going to have a name change to reflect the "commuter friendly" community that it is proposed to be. A heard from a friend who knows a friend that said the new name is going to be Piazza Metro.

The community, which the City Council approved the motion to continue the approval process at a future May 2006 meeting, is going to have several access points to a newly designed and built trail that skirts the Santa Clara river much to the dismay as some local enviornmentalist such as Lynne Plambeck who unsuccessfully ran for the recent April 11th City Council seats up for grabs. In addition to the trail access, this commuter friendly community, will also come with a new pedestrian bridge that will span across Soledad Canyon Rd to reach the Santa Clarita rail station to promote public transportation to residents and make it easier to access instead of using the cross walk down the road just west of the subject property.

This community will feature 407 units, in which 22 will be live/work units where the owner's will have the ability to transform the bottom floor of three, into their own business commercial space, lease it out to another business, and or incorporate into their own personal residence.

This new type of community that incorporates business, transportation, and personal residences all in one "village" is something the Planning Commission and City Council are looking closer at and wanting to do more of. For instance there is the proposed Monteverde Development Co project at the entrance to our city at the site of Smiser Mule Ranch, as well as a mixed-use plan for the Down Town Newhall area potentially.

Things-are-a-changing here in the Santa Clarita Valley. It will start to look more and more like a bedroom community meets 3rd street in Santa Monica, but with out the ocean, however we do have the "Bridgeport waterways" and the fierce Santa Clara River right?

Piazza Metro is welcome in my opinion. New and innovative communities are needed for the growth and diversity of our community. We don't want to be just another bedroom community, in which anyone can imitate. These developments will help to not only home buyers interested in Santa Clarita (demand), but they will enable businesses to keep finding reasons to relocate here from elsewhere in order to have a nice place for their employees live. Bottom line, if you are going to live in Los Angeles county, despite increased traffic, Santa Clarita is the place to be.