Planners Pledge to Rein in Growth in Santa Clarita Valley

Los Angeles County planning commissioners pledged Wednesday to tighten controls on development in the Santa Clarita Valley, indefinitely delaying or killing projects that could bring 32,000 homes and apartments into the area.

The Regional Planning Commission did not create development guidelines or controls. Instead, it approved by a 3-2 vote a resolution saying the commission and county Department of Regional Planning will more vigorously enforce existing development ordinances.

The commission’s action does create a process for reviewing requests by developers to amend the area’s general plan, which acts as a blueprint for development in the valley.

29 Projects

At issue are 29 proposed developments that would require amendments to the area’s general plan.

The developments, if all approved, would bring as many as 32,000 homes and apartments to the area, county planners say.

Rather than individually review the proposed developments, the commission and Department of Regional Planning will study all 29 at once to better understand the effect of projects proposed throughout the valley.

County Planning Director Norman Murdoch said the commission has never reviewed so many proposed plan amendments at the same time. The developments will be delayed indefinitely while the commission and its staff hammer out how such a massive review will be carried out, he said.

It is clear that some of the developments will have to be rejected, Murdoch said.

Approving all of the proposed developments would, in a few years, push the valley’s population past 270,000 people--the population projected for the year 2010. Murdoch said the commission is not ready to allow development to push the population above that figure.

The commissioners also agreed Wednesday not to accept new applications for general plan amendments until they dispose of the current backlog. They postponed indefinitely a June 30 hearing on a proposal by Santa Fe Development & Mortgage Corp. to build 2,131 homes on the southern border of the city of Santa Clarita.

The message behind the resolution, Commission President Betty Fisher said, is that county planners are going to evaluate the potential impact of general plan amendments on the entire valley, not just on isolated areas.

Fisher said the commission will be more selective in approving amendments to the general plan. “The standards are going to have to go up,” she said.

But Commissioner Clinton C. Ternstrom--appointed by Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the valley--said the commission’s action lacks teeth.

16 Questions

Ternstrom had recommended that the commission approve asking 16 questions when reviewing general plan amendments.

Ternstrom said the planning commission should ask such questions as what impact a general plan amendment would have on traffic, health, safety, housing and water and sewer services. He proposed that one of the questions be: “What is the justification for the proposed development?”

Fisher and Commissioners Sadie B. Clark and Lee Strong voted to approve the resolution without the questions.

Ternstrom and Commissioner J. Paul Robinson dissented.