Anaheim Hills apartment developers believe their 498-unit complex is a good match for the area and will open up access to an underutilized nearby park.
They’ll be making their arguments this month to city officials and skeptical neighbors, needing to overcome strong opposition from those who believe the apartments will cause more disruption than benefits.
SALT Development will seek approvals from the Anaheim Planning Commission this month and possibly in October from the City Council for the apartment development it is calling the Hills Preserve Project.
The developers’ pitch to city officials in the coming weeks will be that the seven-story building is tucked away in an undeveloped wilderness area where they say only 10 single-family homes would have a direct line of sight to the new complex. The complex’s existence will also make the area more wildfire resilient, they argue, since the building will be fire-hardened and add 14 fire hydrants and cut back vegetation.
And too, the apartments will help the region’s housing shortage, they emphasize, while also preserving dozens of acres of surrounding open space they own.
“I feel like we’ve taken an extra step to do something that’s really worthy of Anaheim Hills,” said Salt Development co-founder Thomas Vegh. “We’ve taken that step to make this special.”
The project has drawn strong opposition from residents in the surrounding Anaheim Hills area who don’t want to see the apartments built. They’ve raised concerns about worsening traffic in an already congested area, especially during wildfire evacuations, noise from new residents and disrupting wildlife and vegetation that exist on the plot of land.
“The last time we had to evacuate, it took me 90 minutes to go four miles,” said Doug Hill, who’s lived in the Anaheim Hills since 1996.
SALT Development has been working on the project for four years, and if it can get approvals from the city could begin building as soon as next year.
The 76-acre development near the 91 Freeway off of Santa Ana Canyon Road would be nearly a $500 million investment, said Brian Hobbs, SALT’s other co-founder. Half of the property will be built on while the rest, Hobbs said, they will keep undeveloped with deed restrictions.
There are also plans to build a parking garage, office buildings and six single-family homes. Vegh and Hobbs said of the 10 homes with direct sightlines to the planned apartment building, five of the homeowners have signed a letter of support for the development.
Vegh said a key part of their development is creating better access to a neighboring city-owned park, the Deer Canyon Park Preserve.
Deer Canyon in Anaheim Hills in Anaheim, CA, on Wednesday, July 17, A developer hopes to build 498 apartments and some single-family homes on what is now open green space. Forty-three of the 76-acre site would be kept as open space. 2024. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The 103-acre wilderness area is difficult to access and many don’t even know about it, Vegh said. It has hiking and horseback riding trails, picnic tables and restrooms, but few people ever get to use it, Hobbs said.
SALT Development proposes to expand a city road that will serve the project that’s usually gated off and connect other nearby trails to the park. On a recent tour of the park, the developers pointed out overgrown vegetation surrounding picnic tables and a restroom that didn’t appear to get a lot of use.
“This is one of the few spots where you could still walk in the middle of Anaheim … where you can’t see any houses at all,” Hobbs said about the park.
The Anaheim Hills’s infrastructure was never intended for dense housing, argued Hill, who opposes the project. While there is a need to combat the housing crisis, “it needs to be in the appropriate area and the appropriate type of buildings,” he said.
“This will be the largest building in Anaheim Hills if they succeed,” Hill said, who added that most neighbors he’s spoken with don’t want the apartments built.
Hill worries too that the development will make it harder to get fire insurance as providers have left the state or significantly raised rates
Speaking about wildfire concerns, Hobbs said the building’s design would make it fire-hardened and would give firefighters easier access to the hilly terrain by developing part of the area. During a wildfire, the apartment’s residents could wait to evacuate.
“If there’s a remote wildfire where there’s optional, non-mandatory evacuation, which has happened several times in Anaheim, our residents have an opportunity to just shelter in place,” Hobbs said. “They wouldn’t need to evacuate. We can sit tight and wait for the right time to evacuate so we’re not just clogging up the roads.”
An environmental impact report done for the development said wildfire evacuation during a worst-case scenario would take 210 minutes if the apartment homes are built, compared to 186 minutes if they are not.
The developers have said the apartments are expected to rent in the mid-$2,400 to $16,000 a month. The building would have a mid-century aesthetic and feature a rooftop pool, a fitness center, a bowling alley and lounge areas.
“We have projects like this already that exist and they’re very expensive apartments and they’re not party hounds,” Vegh said. “It’s not Las Vegas. It’s very educated people who have a lot of money to live where they’re at and they want it quiet. It’s their house.”
SALT Development has pledged to give $500,000 to Anaheim’s recently established housing trust fund, created to finance new affordable developments.
The project is expected to go before the Planning Commission at one of its September meetings. If approved by the commissioners, it could then go before the City Council in October.
Hobbs said the earliest the developers could start breaking ground is summer 2025. The developer will host a tour for anyone wishing to see the site on Sept. 6. People can reserve a spot by emailing [email protected].
Originally Published: September 3, 2024 at 8:31 a.m.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.