Local News in Brief : Panel Delays Talks on Santa Clarita Growth

Los Angeles County planning commissioners put off discussion Thursday of a much-publicized report on planning and growth in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The Regional Planning Commission was to have discussed a report prepared by the Department of Regional Planning that described growth trends in the valley and outlined ways to improve procedures the commission uses to review proposed amendments to the area’s general plan.

The report, based on pending applications for development, predicted that the valley’s population could reach 358,000 by 2010, while county planners had estimated a population of 270,000 by that year.

Instead of addressing the discrepancy, the five commissioners spent most of Thursday’s meeting discussing the problems of formulating general plans overall.

The commissioners did ask staff members to draft recommendations on how to streamline the review of general plan amendments.

After the report was presented to commissioners April 25, the Santa Clarita City Council and Planning Commission wrote letters to the commission urging that population growth predictions be updated and monitored more regularly.