County Moves to Curb Growth in Santa Clarita : Development: The Department of Regional Planning proposal would make deep cuts in developers’ plans.

Los Angeles County planners, saying there are limits to growth even in the burgeoning Santa Clarita Valley, released a development plan Monday that would cap growth in the valley, rejecting close to 28,000 dwelling units proposed by developers.

The plan still must be approved by the Regional Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors and probably will be revised during several public hearings on the document.

The first hearing before the Regional Planning Commission is scheduled Jan. 4.

The plan released Monday by the Department of Regional Planning would revise the valley’s general plan, which acts as a broad blueprint for growth, designating land for commercial, industrial and residential development in a region.

The plan upholds a county policy allowing the present 151,000 population of the valley--the county’s fastest-growing region for the past four years--to swell to 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 currently available water supply in 1987 and could use as much as 96% by 2010.

That report, tallying the cost of growth in the region for the first time, also predicted that 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 condominiums to be built in the valley in the next 20 years.

That would be on top of 48,000 dwelling units currently in the valley, another 19,000 approved but not yet built, and a further 18,000 that would be allowed under current zoning.

The plan released Monday will determine the fate of 43 development proposals that would exceed the 10,100 units it provides for. Those proposals call for 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 called for drastic changes in the use of land. One proposal, for example, called for squeezing 1,215 units onto 43 acres currently zoned for 32 units.

After county officials complete the new Santa Clarita Valley general plan, they will 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.

A map shows much of the growth allowed by the plan would be in northern Valencia, an area being developed by the Newhall Land and Farming Co.