Dialogue With Builder Pays Off for Santa Clarita

Officials and citizens of the young city of Santa Clarita have lobbied the county and a developer to scale back a large housing tract just outside the city limits.

Members of the Santa Clarita City Council and a citizens watchdog group called SCOPE said they plan to continue speaking out about projects that lie outside the city’s jurisdiction but are close enough to funnel more cars onto city streets and send more students into local schools.

They said their lobbying on the Monteverde housing project in unincorporated Plum Canyon shows that the city and a developer can work together to come up with a project acceptable to both sides.

The 903-acre Monteverde development was originally envisioned by planners at Shapell Industries of Beverly Hills as a 707-home project in an area east of Plum Canyon Road and south of well-traveled Bouquet Canyon Road.

To SCOPE, which stands for Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and Environment, the Plum Canyon proposal “embodied all the challenges” that the new city would face in coming years, said member Allan Cameron. The development was large, would obviously affect Santa Clarita and was outside the city’s limits, he said.

It was also clear, Cameron said, that scuttling the project was unlikely. So SCOPE, led by Mary Antle and Jill Klajic, studied environmental reports on the project and made proposals to correct what organization members said were deficiencies in the developer’s plans.

The City Council, meanwhile, lobbied the developer to build a four-lane road that would connect Plum Canyon Road with Whites Canyon Road to the south. Without the four-lane southern connector, all traffic from the development would have headed north along already congested Bouquet Canyon, the council members said.

At the urging of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Shapell Industries representatives met several times with SCOPE members to discuss the development, said Councilman Dennis Koontz.

When the Board of Supervisors finally approved the Monteverde project May 26, the plans included several provisions developed by Shapell Industries and Santa Clarita residents. The number of homes was reduced from 707 to 522. The lots for each home were increased from 4,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet.

Shapell Industries also agreed to build the four-lane connector from Plum Canyon Road to Whites Canyon Road. The developer originally wanted a two-lane connector.

Dave Vannatta, chief planning deputy to Antonovich, said SCOPE and Santa Clarita officials were able to win the support of supervisors by making realistic and practical recommendations to improve the Plum Canyon project.

“They came in with some very good points,” Vannatta said.

The city and SCOPE also approached the issue positively, he said.

“They weren’t really opponents. They were really concerned citizens,” Vannatta said. He also praised Shapell Industries for being flexible.

Koontz said some developers have viewed the new city with a “certain amount of mistrust.” The Plum Canyon development should show builders that the city is willing to cooperate, he said.

“I think they found they could work with us,” Koontz said of Shapell. “The city of Santa Clarita is not anti-development.”

Still, he said, some developers and the city are “not through the woods in being able to work with each other.”

As for the future, Michael Kotch, president of SCOPE, said the group will continue to focus on proposed developments outside the city’s border. “That’s where the action is,” he said.

The City Council also will address other issues affecting areas outside the city.

It already has ordered its attorney to explore ways the city can join another citizens group in fighting a proposed open-pit mine in Sand Canyon. The council also has written strongly worded letters to the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission calling for more frequent updates of the area’s general plan.