Supervisors OK 7,428 New Homes : Coalition Seeks to Block Projects

Leaders of the Santa Clarita Valley Homeowners Coalition are seeking ways to block construction of four housing projects that will add 7,428 homes to the fast-growing Santa Clarita Valley, where the population is expected to almost triple within 25 years.

Coalition founder Jan Heidt said members will meet with attorneys this weekend to determine if they have any grounds to legally challenge the approval of amendments to the Los Angeles County General Plan for the Santa Clarita Valley that paved the way for construction of the homes, Heidt said.

“I’m totally disgusted,” she said. “The freeways, the schools and the water shortages were not taken into consideration.”

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week approved numerous changes to the county General Plan and the Santa Clarita Valley Areawide General Plan to allow construction of the housing projects, including the 5,400-unit Canyon Park tract proposed for Canyon Country by developer Jack Shine.

Three Other Projects

The other projects approved are: a 1,073-unit development by Larwin Construction Co. on 376 acres west of the Golden State Freeway in Castaic; 637 units by William Cloyd on 424 acres near Soledad Canyon Road and Shadow Pines Boulevard in Canyon Country; and 318 homes by Bouquet Canyon Development Co. on 98 acres near Hob Avenue and Turkey Farm Road in Saugus.

County planner Ray Ristic said the changes in the General Plan were proposed because of the need for more land zoned for housing in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Heidt said residents especially are concerned because no traffic studies were done. That many new people could clog freeways from the Antelope Valley through the San Fernando Valley and on into Los Angeles, she said.

Heidt, who founded the homeowners coalition last year, is among a growing number of residents concerned about the impact of rapid growth on the once-rural area. County planners say the area’s population now is 106,000--up from 97,000 in 1985. The Southern California Assn. of Governments recently estimated that, if current trends continue, 268,900 people will live there by 2010.

Heidt and other community leaders maintain that schools already are at capacity; highways and freeways are crowded, and adequate water supplies for the future are in doubt.

The unprecedented growth has spawned a drive to forge a city from five of the area’s unincorporated communities--Canyon Country, Castaic, Saugus, Newhall and Valencia. Hearings on the cityhood proposal are scheduled to begin next month before the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission.

Connie Worden, spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita City Formation Committee, said cityhood backers do not want to stop growth, just to slow it down. In addition to the 7,428 newly approved homes, at least 30,000 more are in various stages of the planning process, she said.

Development prompted school officials, faced with educating hundreds of new students, to ask voters in November to approve taxes on developers for school construction. That attempt narrowly failed, but trustees of the Castaic, Newhall, Saugus, Sulphur Springs and Hart school districts plan to put the matter before the voters again in June.

Worries About Water

At one point, supervisors held up Shine’s plan to build the 5,400-unit tract because officials of the Castaic Lake Water Agency said they could not guarantee sufficient water supplies. However, Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area, received assurances from the Santa Clara and Valencia water companies that water would be available. Nevertheless, the two companies, which have some water wells, say they are increasingly relying on the Castaic agency to supply consumers.

The proposal by Shine’s company, American Beauty Homes, on a 988-acre site east of the Antelope Valley Freeway at Via Princessa is the county’s first Specific Plan--a concept that at first was criticized loudly by Allan Cameron, a member of the Santa Clarita Valley Planning Advisory Committee.

Since planners tightened language in the plan to specifically require the developer to adhere to county building codes and other laws, however, Cameron said he is pleased, adding, “This will set a precedent for all other specific plans to follow.”