Builder Agrees to Pay $1 Million for Bridge

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission on Wednesday approved a 2,500-unit residential development and an adjoining shopping center outside the Santa Clarita city limits in Sand Canyon.

But in at least a partial victory for a citizens group and for Santa Clarita officials who expressed reservations about the project’s impact on traffic, the commission also decided to require the builder, Shapell-Monteverde, to contribute $1 million toward building a bridge that transportation planners say is vital to relieving gridlock in the eastern Santa Clarita Valley.

The agreement also sets a swift timetable for Shapell-Monteverde to widen Plum Canyon Road and connect it with Whites Canyon Road to create a major north-south artery through Canyon Country. Under the plan, Bouquet Canyon Road would be connected with Sierra Highway to the south in an estimated five years.

The agreement must still be approved by the county Board of Supervisors.

“We won a lot of concessions,” said Jill Klajic, a member of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and Environment, or SCOPE. Klajic said the group and Santa Clarita officials also persuaded Shapell-Monteverde to scale down the project from about 3,400 units.

Despite the concessions, Shapell-Monteverde attorney William D. Ross said the company supports the agreement. He said the agreement guarantees Shapell-Monteverde will be able to complete the project over a 12-year period. The project would not be affected, for example, if the county passed a building moratorium or if Santa Clarita annexed the property.

Later design portions of the project would still require county approval. But the agreement guarantees the developer the right to build the 2,500 units, Ross said.

Shapell-Monteverde proposes to build 1,297 single-family homes and 1,203 condominiums and apartments on 603 vacant acres east of Plum Canyon Road and south of Bouquet Canyon Road. The shopping center would cover 13 acres.

The company already has received Planning Commission approval for an earlier phase of the project to build 522 homes.

The Planning Commission approved the agreement, along with a conditional-use permit and tract map, by a 3-2 vote. Commissioner Lee Strong and Commission President Betty Fisher opposed the project.

Strong said he did not like tying a planning decision to the $1-million contribution for the bridge, which would cross the Santa Clarita River and link Whites Canyon Road with Sierra Highway. Commissioner Clinton Ternstrom, who represents the Santa Clarita Valley, replied, “This is being adopted because we need a solution to a grave problem.”

Wendy H. Wiles, an attorney representing the William S. Hart Union High School District and Saugus Union Elementary School District, said the districts will ask the Board of Supervisors to reject the development agreement, as well as the permit and tract map.

The districts will contend that the Planning Commission disregarded county guidelines that state developments can only be approved if there are adequate public facilities, such as schools, to accommodate growth, Wiles said.