Saying No to the Builders : Planners Write New Scenario for Santa Clarita Valley

Los Angeles County planners, saying there are limits to growth even in the burgeoning Santa Clarita Valley, on Monday released a new plan to cap growth there, rejecting at least 28,000 dwelling units proposed by developers.

The plan, which would revise the valley’s long-range general plan or blueprint for growth, still must be approved by the Regional Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors and probably will be revised during public hearings.

Planners envision the valley’s population of 151,000--the county’s fastest-growing region for the last four years--swelling to a limit of 270,000 by 2010. Some developers have lobbied the county to ease that population ceiling to allow more building.

John Edwards, an administrator in the Department of Regional Planning, said the new plan recognizes that growth can continue only if there are roads, water and other services to support it. “We’re approaching the limits of the infrastructure,” Edwards said.

Edwards cited a recent county report that said a limited water supply could slow growth in the valley. The report said the valley used 68% of its available water supply in 1987 and could use as much as 96% by 2010.

That report, tallying the overall cost of growth in the region for the first time, also predicted the Santa Clarita Valley would need at least $912 million in capital improvements--from roads to libraries to parks--over the next 20 years.

The new plan would allow up to 10,100 new houses, apartments and condos to be built in the valley in the next 20 years. That would be on top of the 48,000 dwelling units currently in the valley, another 19,000 approved but not yet built, and another 18,000 that would be allowed under current zoning.

The plan released Monday will determine the fate of 43 development proposals to build yet another 38,000 houses, apartments and condominiums--enough units to fill a city the size of Inglewood.

The proposals were put forth by some of the most influential developers in the Santa Clarita Valley and call for drastic changes in the use of land. One proposal, for example, would squeeze 1,215 units onto 43 acres zoned for 32 units.

After county officials complete the new Santa Clarita Valley general plan, they will then see how the 43 proposals fit the new planning document, Edwards said. Some of those projects will have to be rejected or scaled down to meet the population ceiling of the new general plan, but county planners have not yet identified all projects that would be affected, he said.

A map illustrating the new general plan shows that much of the growth it would allow would take place in northern Valencia, an area being built by the Newhall Land & Farming Co.