Santa Clarita Seeks Huge Sphere of Influence

The Santa Clarita City Council made a bid Tuesday night to extend its influence over 199 square miles of the rapidly growing Santa Clarita Valley, apparently embarking on a collision course with an agency that has already twice thwarted the young city’s territorial ambitions.

The City Council voted to extend its “sphere of influence”--the land the city wants declared eligible for annexation--over an area more than five times the size of the 39-square-mile city.

The sphere must be approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, the state-established agency that oversees annexations and incorporations.

The sphere would include all the land LAFCO removed from the original cityhood proposal in 1987, which called for a city of 90 square miles. Santa Clarita was formed by a vote of the residents of four communities: Saugus, Valencia, Newhall and Canyon Country.

LAFCO chopped that proposal to 39 square miles.

The Santa Clarita Valley is one of the fastest growing regions in the county, with 147,000 residents in Santa Clarita and 27,000 in the unincorporated areas. By 2010, county planners predict, the valley’s population will reach 270,000.

The proposal passed Tuesday night would include in the city’s sphere of influence Elsmere Canyon, which Santa Clarita wants to prevent being turned into a garbage dump.

LAFCO already rebuffed an earlier attempt by Santa Clarita to place Elsmere in the city’s sphere. Michi Takahashi, a spokeswoman for LAFCO, said in an interview that the commission will probably reject this attempt by Santa Clarita as well.

Takahashi said LAFCO’s position on Elsmere reflected a long-standing commission policy. The commission tries not to place potential sites for regional facilities, such as landfills, in the sphere of any one city, she said.

The commission followed this course when Agoura Hills incorporated in 1982, she said. The commission left the Calabasas Landfill out of the city’s sphere.

If Santa Clarita ever annexes the entire sphere, which is unlikely, it would swell to 199 square miles--roughly the combined size of Lancaster, Palmdale, Long Beach and Glendale. The largest city in Los Angeles County is Los Angeles, with 468 square miles.

The sphere would extend east to the Ventura County line and include the town of Val Verde. Angeles National Forest forms most of the northern and southern boundaries. The sphere would include Castaic but would omit the communities of Agua Dulce and Acton.

In its sphere request to LAFCO, the city said the large sphere was justified because the planning problems facing Santa Clarita confront the entire valley.

An uncharacteristically subdued council approved the proposal with little comment, but last month council members said that including Elsmere Canyon in its sphere would give the city greater influence over plans for the canyon.

The council made its first bid for Elsmere in December, 1987, a few days after the Los Angeles City Council voted to place Elsmere in its sphere. The Los Angeles lawmakers acted at the urging of Councilman Hal Bernson, who said Elsmere must be preserved as a potential landfill to handle the growing mountains of trash Los Angeles generates each day.

But in February, 1988, the commission rejected the requests of both cities and left Elsmere under the control of Los Angeles County.

Santa Clarita Councilman Carl Boyer III, in an interview, said that putting Elsmere in Santa Clarita’s sphere would not necessarily block the landfill, but that it would ensure the city participates in discussions on the project.

Bernson has declined to comment on Santa Clarita’s renewed attempt to place Elsmere in its sphere.

Elsmere Canyon is two miles north of the interchange of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways. BBK Corp. of Torrance hopes to obtain permits for the dump from Los Angeles County early next year. BKK President Kenneth B. Kazarian has said the landfill could be operating by 1991.

Santa Clarita council members and residents have charged that the proposed dump will pollute ground water, a claim Kazarian denies. An environmental impact report on the project is in progress.