Santa Clarita Challenges Low Census Figures : Population: An early federal count shows 40,000 fewer residents than had been assumed. Some now fear renewed pressure from developers.

Santa Clarita officials, worried that a lower-than-expected federal estimate of the city’s population could mean more development pressure and less money for the young municipality, said they will challenge a preliminary head count by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau reported last month that Santa Clarita’s population is about 107,000. But since its 1987 incorporation, the city has been using 147,000--a figure produced by the state and based on voter registration--as its official population count.

The far lower federal figure could provide ammunition for local developers to argue that land-use plans being assembled by both the city and Los Angeles County don’t allow for enough residential construction. Government planners have used the higher figure to set tentative limits on how many residences can be built in the city and the surrounding Santa Clarita Valley.

A tentative land-use plan being weighed by county officials envisions trying to hold the valley’s population to about 270,000 by the year 2010. The city’s plan, which also is not final, anticipates limiting growth to about 180,000 people by the same year.

Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said she is particularly concerned that the Census Bureau’s figure, unless it is revised upwards, may encourage developers to push for more housing units in the Santa Clarita Valley.

City officials have argued that developers in outlying unincorporated county areas are not paying their fair share for municipal services such as schools, roads and police. Although residents of developments outside the city limits pay no city taxes, they still use city services, Darcy said.

“We’ve always been the hole in the doughnut,” she said. “We’re the hole and the county’s the doughnut.”

Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for Newhall Land & Farm Co., the major developer in the Santa Clarita Valley, said her firm has not studied the preliminary census figures closely. But if the lower federal figure is correct, she said, it would mean “there’s definitely more room” for growth in the region.

Census figures also are important to cities because they are used as a basis for divvying up millions of dollars in sales taxes, motor vehicle registration fees and other state and federal funds.

Darcy said if Santa Clarita’s population is pegged at 40,000 less than what city officials now estimate, it would produce a shortfall of up to $500,000 in the city’s $42-million annual budget.

The mayor said the city plans to undertake its own population count and intends to formally challenge the federal number.

City Councilwoman Jill Klajic said “it’s obvious to us” that the Census Bureau’s early figure is incorrect, although she believes final census numbers will put the city’s population somewhere between 121,000 and 137,000.

The census “had so many internal problems and management problems out here, there were just whole tracts that they can’t guarantee were counted in the first place,” she said.

Larry Hugg, a Census Bureau spokesman, said census takers will conduct recounts in cities that have questioned the preliminary federal count, but he could not gauge the chances of Santa Clarita prevailing in its challenge. Final census figures will be issued by March, he said.

Early census numbers also showed that most San Fernando Valley cities experienced double-digit growth rates during the 1980s, especially newer cities at the Valley’s northern and western edges.

The most explosive growth occurred in the Antelope Valley area. Palmdale’s population zoomed to 65,357 this year from 12,297 in 1980--a phenomenal 432% increase--while the number of Lancaster residents jumped to 95,101 from 48,027 in 1980, an increase of 98%.

Agoura Hills grew by 77%, as its upscale population jumped to 20,190 this year from 11,399 in 1980. San Fernando posted a 25% gain, while Westlake Village’s population jumped 21%. Burbank grew by 9%.

The only Valley city to lose population was tiny, affluent Hidden Hills, which dropped by 3%, or 45 residents.