City Confirms Two Open Zoning Cases Against Sand Canyon Wedding Venues

Records the City won’t release show code enforcement is investigating a $4.2 million “private estate” on Josel Drive and a second venue on Triumph Avenue. A third operation, advertising 300-guest events on a 10-acre rural parcel, has now been reported to the City.

The City of Santa Clarita has confirmed in writing that it is investigating two Sand Canyon Estate properties marketed online as wedding and event venues for zoning violations, according to a public-records response obtained by Good Shepherd Media.

In a September 21 response to a California Public Records Act request, the City Clerk’s office identified two open code enforcement cases: Case CE-26-1754 for 27351 Triumph Avenue, marketed as Oasis Ranch House, and Case CE-26-1755 for 26505 Josel Drive, marketed as Villa de Palma. “Both cases involve zoning violations,” the City wrote.

The City declined to release the case files themselves, citing Government Code section 7923.600(a), which exempts investigatory records compiled for law-enforcement or licensing purposes. It referred further questions to Senior Officer Daniel Ramirez of the City’s Community Preservation Division.

The City also said it holds no business-license records for either address. Business licenses in Santa Clarita are administered by Los Angeles County, and liquor licenses by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Good Shepherd Media has filed records requests with both agencies.

A venue website the day before closing

The Josel Drive property, a residential parcel in Sand Canyon, sold for approximately $4.2 million on May 14, 2025, under the name “Laroca Villa and Ranch,” according to property records. Pages on the Villa de Palma venue website were published May 13, 2025, one day before escrow closed.

The site advertises events of up to 200 guests, parking for 120 cars, a bar and after-party lounge, overnight lodging for 18, and a planned 5,000-square-foot barn banquet hall. A listing on the wedding-planning platform The Knot indicates bartending staff are available. Good Shepherd Media found no California limited liability company registered under the venue’s name; the phone number listed for bookings carries a South Carolina area code.

Oasis Ranch House, on Triumph Avenue, is likewise a residential parcel advertised as a private-estate event venue. The City has not said which provisions of the zoning code are at issue in either case.

A third venue: 300 guests on a Non-Urban parcel

On September 20, Good Shepherd Media filed a supplemental complaint with the City identifying a third operation, Rolling Hills Ranch Venues at 27634 Rolling Hills Avenue. The City logged it as Request #11111772 the following morning and set an October 1 response date.

The venue’s website describes a “Private Estate Venue” on just over 10 acres with space for events up to 300 guests, four separately marketed event areas including “The Oak Grove” and “The Pool Terrace,” and in-house wedding-planning services. The site carries a 2023 copyright notice. Publicly available property records list the parcel’s zoning as Non-Urban 4.

Under Chapter 17.32 of the Santa Clarita Municipal Code, the NU4 zone is intended to preserve large-lot rural communities characterized by agricultural and equestrian uses, and any use not expressly listed as permitted is prohibited.   Commercial event facilities are not among the listed uses. Good Shepherd Media found no conditional use permit, temporary use permit, or special-event permit of record for the address.

A 300-guest event is, conservatively, 100 to 150 vehicles on a two-lane canyon road with no curb, gutter, sidewalk, or street lighting, in the corridor that burned in the 2016 Sand Fire and the 2019 Tick Fire.

All three properties sit on the rural roads east of Sand Canyon Road, the same network at the center of this summer’s Belcaro at Sand Canyon hearings, where residents repeatedly told the Planning Commission that wildfire evacuation capacity on those roads is already strained.

What Good Shepherd Media has asked the City

The supplemental complaint asks the City to open a case for the Rolling Hills Avenue parcel, inspect each property during a scheduled event, confirm in writing whether any permit or license exists for any of the three, and issue notices of violation where none does. It also asks the City to refer the operators to the Los Angeles County Fire Department for review of assembly occupancy and defensible space in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.

Good Shepherd Media has asked the City to answer three questions by October 2: whether it considers a commercial event venue a permitted, conditionally permitted, or prohibited use in the NU4 zone; how many complaints it has received about each address since January 2023 and what it did in response; and whether any City official or councilmember has attended or been offered an event at any of the venues.

Good Shepherd Media has sent requests for comment to the listed contacts for each venue and will update this story with any response. Officer Ramirez had not responded to a request for comment by publication.

Editor’s note: This story is based on the City of Santa Clarita’s written response to Public Records Request #11078335, dated September 21, 2026; publicly available property and business records; and the venues’ own published marketing materials. Good Shepherd Media will publish the City’s responses to Request #11111772 and to its press inquiry when they are received. Residents with information about events at these or other properties can reach the reporter at the address below.