Supervisors Put Limits on Hotbed of Growth : Development: The board adopts a plan to limit construction in the Santa Clarita Valley, threatening proposals for 18,000 dwelling units.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted a slow-growth plan Thursday that strictly limits construction in the booming Santa Clarita Valley, a possibly fatal blow to proposals by developers for about 18,000 dwelling units.

The plan, approved on a 3-2 vote, does not halt growth in the valley, where fast-track development doubled the population to about 158,000 over the past decade. According to county planners, the plan increases the amount of land designated for urban use by about 15%.

But the General Plan rejects requests by developers to build thousands of houses, condominiums and apartments on unincorporated land in the valley, which was the fastest-growing region in the county between 1985 and 1989. The city of Santa Clarita, the major population center, is preparing its own growth plan.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, whose 5th District includes the Santa Clarita Valley, said the General Plan will require developers to pay for badly needed public facilities such as roads, schools and libraries.

Slow-growth advocates, the Santa Clarita City Council and the county’s Regional Planning Commission have complained that unbridled building outpaced the growth of public services.

In exchange for inclusion in the plan, developers promised to provide roads, parks, schools and fire stations, Antonovich said. When Supervisor Ed Edelman asked why developers were so generous, Antonovich replied, “Because we are tougher with them, as we should be.”

The General Plan, two years in development, does not confer final approval on residential building projects but establishes a blueprint for growth into the next century. The individual projects must still be approved on a case-by-case basis by the county Regional Planning Commission and supervisors. The plan does not affect projects which have already won final approval and building permits.

At issue were requests by developers to build about 38,000 dwelling units in the valley. Of those, 7,000 had final approval under the previous General Plan, so the supervisors had to decide how many of the remaining 31,000 units to allow.

Under the General Plan approved Thursday, 12,865 of the 31,000 new units could be built in the unincorporated sections of the valley.

The document was patterned after an earlier one approved by the Regional Planning Commission in May but permits almost 3,000 more units than the commission’s plan.

Santa Clarita Community Development Director Lynn Harris said the impact of the extra units was uncertain and complained that the city was not included in negotiations between developers and Antonovich’s planning staff.

Developers had been waiting anxiously for months for final recommendations from Antonovich.

“When I walked in here, I had my fingers crossed and didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Dirk Gosda, a partner in Cook Ranch Associates, developers of the 3,050-unit Northlake project near Castaic.

Northlake was one of the winners under the new plan. The Regional Planning Commission had originally rejected the Northlake plan, but supervisors decided to allow 3,050 units after the company agreed to provide, among other things, sites for two schools, two parks and a fire station.

The Newhall Land & Farming Co., the valley’s largest developer, was the biggest winner Thursday, obtaining inclusion for about 6,600 of the 8,900 units it had requested.

The Dale Poe Development Co. had asked to build 3,500 units, but the plan would allow only 891. However, the plan was not a complete defeat for the firm because Antonovich recommended sending the Poe project, called Stevenson Ranch, back to the Planning Commission for further review.

Poe also has promised to build or help finance schools, roads and fire stations in return for inclusion in the plan.

But Supervisor Pete Schabarum suggested allowing Poe 700 units for now, leaving the balance of the project for later study. Antonovich rejected the idea, saying the deals struck with other developers in negotiating the terms of the General Plan could unravel if Poe received the units Schabarum requested. He did not elaborate.

In the end, Antonovich, Kenneth Hahn and Deane Dana voted for the plan. Schabarum and Edelman, who said he needed more time to review the plan, voted against it.