Santa Clarita Quizzes Saugus Project Builder

The Santa Clarita City Council is wasting no time in trying to make its influence felt outside the city’s borders.

For about 45 minutes Thursday night, city officials and residents grilled an attorney for the developer of a 4,200-unit housing project in Saugus that adjoins the Santa Clarita city boundary.

Although the council has no authority over that area, council members said that the project will have a serious effect on Santa Clarita and that they want to ensure that adequate roads, schools, parks and other services are provided.

The 903-acre Monteverde development near Plum Canyon Road, which would more than double the population of the Bouquet Canyon area, will go before the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission within the next two months for approval.

The development will have a direct impact on public services within Santa Clarita, especially to deal with traffic congestion, Councilman Carl Boyer III said, pointing to a map of the project.

William B. Ross, attorney for the developer, Shapell Industries of Beverly Hills, appeared voluntarily before the council. He said the map to which Boyer referred did not reflect the final version of the development that will be presented to the county.

“It is reasonable to assume there will be modifications to the project,” he said.

Boyer told Ross that he wants to ensure that the developer provides required park space or pays adequate fees so that the city or county can buy parkland.

Councilman Dennis Koontz asked Ross whether Shapell considered including the City of Santa Clarita in the development negotiations with the county. The attorney replied that he could arrange a meeting between the developer and city officials.

“We know we’re immediately adjacent to your city,” he said. “We will respond to issues of concern.”

In response to a question, Ross said Shapell would furnish a copy of the development agreement when it is negotiated with the county.

40,000 Car Trips a Day

Mike Lyons, who lives in the Bouquet Canyon area, urged the City Council to intercede at the county Planning Commission meeting on behalf of city residents who will be affected by the project, which he said will bring 14,000 people into the area and generate at least 40,000 car trips a day on Bouquet Canyon Road.

“There’s no way the present traffic structure will support what they have in mind,” Lyons said. “Bouquet and Soledad canyons are at capacity right now,”

He added that schools in the area already are full, and that the one fire station site the developer plans to provide is inadequate.

Resident Sally Chase Clark said the development concept was approved by the county “without any regard for the public welfare.”

She asked the City Council to request that the county invoke the requirements of a court-ordered development-monitoring system on the project. The system is a computerized method of evaluating development proposals to ensure that projects will not overburden roads, schools, parks, water supplies and other services.

The development concept was approved before the monitoring system was put in place last summer.