County to Re-Examine Neighbors’ Concerns Over Castaic Project

Los Angeles County supervisors Thursday ordered staff planners to look for additional ways to resolve homeowners’ concerns about noise, traffic and visual blight that could be generated by a 1,436-acre industrial park near Castaic.

“The project is a good one and should proceed,” but the problems anticipated by neighbors of the proposed Valencia Commerce Center should be looked at again, Supervisor Ed Edelman said.

Planners will suggest possible solutions to noise, traffic and other problems to supervisors June 20.

The center, proposed by Newhall Land & Farming Co. on land west of the Golden State Freeway and north of California 126 in the Santa Clarita Valley, was approved by the Regional Planning Commission in March.

The development will include 12 million square feet of office, retail and manufacturing space, including a $26.8-million U.S. Postal Service processing facility to handle mail in northern Los Angeles County. Newhall Land officials estimated that the center will create 20,000 jobs.

Newhall Land officials already have agreed to realign Becker Road, the center’s main access road; erect walls to buffer residential areas from noise; provide additional landscaping, and install a pedestrian bridge across Becker Road, county Planner Donald Culbertson said.

But Castaic residents and the city of Santa Clarita told supervisors during a public hearing Thursday that these measures are not enough.

An environmental impact analysis of the project failed to acknowledge that any of the city’s streets or intersections would be affected, Santa Clarita Mayor Carl Boyer III said in a letter to supervisors. An accompanying City Council resolution asked the county to identify and resolve traffic problems that will affect the city as well as the county.

Resident Kathryn Jensen, a representative of the Live Oak Community Assn., said that traffic congestion, visual blight and other problems the project might generate have yet to be resolved.

“We as a community are most concerned about the introduction of traffic congestion--specifically the use of Becker Road--and the adverse visual impacts from this project,” she said.

Newhall Land plans to place large buildings on top of a hill that overlooks several homes, Jensen said. “I am convinced that a significant portion of these manufacturing buildings will be highly visible” from the homes, she said. “The hills surrounding our community should be preserved in as natural a state as possible.”

Chip Meyer of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE) called the project “poor planning” that is inconsistent with the developer’s past projects.

Representatives of the Canyon Country and Castaic chambers of commerce urged supervisors to approve the project because of the large number of jobs it would create.