Santa Clarita Development Plans Sharply Cut by Panel : Growth: Planners recommend that only 12,500 of more than 38,000 housing units proposed for the valley be built.

Los Angeles County planners, rejecting pleas by developers in the burgeoning Santa Clarita Valley, dealt them a sharp setback Monday by recommending that fewer than a third of the housing projects on the drawing boards be built.

Under the plan, 12,500 housing units could be built in the valley in the next 20 years, well below the more than 38,000 units proposed by developers. One ambitious project of more than 4,600 units would be cut back to fewer than 900.

The recommendations refine a draft plan prepared last fall by the Department of Regional Planning, which is creating a new general plan for the valley 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

The plan still must be approved by the Regional Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. The commission will hold a hearing on the plan Thursday.

Developers attending a hearing on the draft plan in January asked county planners to ease growth restrictions. They promised to build roads, create parks and donate land for new schools, libraries and fire stations.

The pleas and promises voiced at the January hearing did not sway county planners. Except for a few revisions and corrections, the recommendations released Monday closely resemble the draft plan released last fall, said Lee Stark, a county planner.

Last fall’s draft plan set sweeping goals for growth in the valley, while the report released Monday outlined in detail how many units each developer could build.

The greatest changes recommended Monday involved easing restrictions on Northlake, a proposed 5,100-unit housing tract between the Golden State Freeway and Castaic Lake. Planners rejected the project entirely last fall, but now recommend that the area be zoned for 1,800 units.

Stark said county planners decided to endorse Northlake because the project has widespread backing from merchants and schools in nearby Castaic and is located close to the Golden State Freeway. Northlake would also occupy mostly flat land that would not require much grading of hillsides, he said.

The proposed general plan would uphold a county policy that would allow the Santa Clarita Valley’s population, now about 150,000, to swell to 270,000 by 2010. Stark said a lack of roads, water and other public facilities is prompting the county to slow the rapid pace of growth in the valley, where the population has increased 150% in 12 years.

If approved as recommended, the plan would block projects that do not provide badly needed roads or other public services, or that require major grading of hillsides.

The plan would chop in half a 1,623-unit project by Paragon Homes on the border of the Angeles National Forest. Stark said planners try to keep a buffer zone between the forest and development.

The biggest potential loser appeared to be the Dale Poe Development Corp., a company that hopes to build 4,632 units west of the Golden State Freeway and south of the Magic Mountain amusement park. The proposed plan would allow 891 units on the property.

Stark said the Poe property includes jagged hills that county planners found unsuitable for development.