A previously rejected housing project in an undeveloped area of Anaheim Hills is back from the dead.
The Hills Preserve project was once a 498-unit, high-end apartment complex proposal that the City Council rejected in October 2024, expressing concerns related to evacuations in the fire-prone area.
Now, it’s back as a 302-unit, single-family home development paired with a 46-unit affordable apartment complex. It’s still planned for the same area near the 91 Freeway off of Santa Ana Canyon Road.
This time, though, the City Council will have less say over the project’s approval. SALT Development LLC has submitted plans to Anaheim under a state law known as “builder’s remedy.”
For cities throughout the state that don’t have a compliant citywide housing plan in place, developers can submit plans under the builder’s remedy provision that allow them to bypass local zoning in place, so long as they build some affordable housing.
The California Attorney General’s office says local governments can’t deny certain housing projects submitted under the provision for inconsistency with zoning or land use designation. A legal alert issued to cities this summer stressed that the attorney general’s office has intervened in recent history when cities failed to timely process builder’s remedy applications.
Plans available for view at City Hall show modern-style, single-family homes in a gated community. The lots for the single-family homes range from around 2,300 square feet to 5,000.
Throughout the development, there would be 14 pocket parks and one larger community park.
The project is called Deer Canyon Preserve.
City spokesperson Mike Lyster said in an email that the project is not expected to see any major consideration by the city until at least well into 2026. The proposal is undergoing review by several city departments and an environmental review needs to be completed, which could take eight to 12 months, he said.
“Just as with the first proposal, evacuation and fire safety will be looked at,” Lyster said. “Any decision on any topic by the Planning Commission can see appeals filed and a follow-up City Council meeting.”
The builder’s remedy application came in May, the same month the city submitted its housing plan to the state. But the state didn’t approve it until July.
Lyster said the city didn’t have an approved plan in place because it was held up by the city’s now-dropped lawsuit against a local group homes nonprofit, Grandma’s House of Hope.
“Unfortunately, we did not prevail in the legal challenge, with state officials holding up our housing element as it played out,” Lyster said.
The last time the SALT Development sought approval, an organized group of residents opposed the project, raising concerns over wildfire evacuations after several difficult evacuations in the past.
District 6 Councilmember Natalie Meeks, who represents the Anaheim Hills, said she can’t take a position yet on the new proposal since it hasn’t gone through the approval process.
“I do want to make sure that environmental, traffic and evacuation findings are good and citizens will be protected,” Meeks said. “I’m going to be looking at it very carefully. We need to make sure our community remains safe.”
Dan Scanlon, a resident in the area, said he and many of his neighbors are opposed to SALT’s latest plan again because there will still be too many more people in the area on Santa Ana Canyon Road trying to evacuate during a wildfire.
Builder’s remedy can’t, he said, override local zoning if it endangers the public’s safety.
“If all those people had to evacuate at the same time and you add that to the people already there, we think it’s going to cause gridlock and really inhibit the evacuation,” Scanlon said. “We had that problem a few years ago, even without those houses.”
The new homes, like many in the area, would be located in a very high fire hazard severity zone.
A representative of SALT Development did not respond to a request for comment.