Castaic Residents Block New Gas Station

Residents of Castaic want their community to become more than just another truck stop along the Golden Gate Freeway, and on Thursday they took a step in that direction by defeating a proposed 24-hour gasoline station and mini-mart.

Although the area is primarily known for its string of gas stations and fast-food restaurants, inflated land prices have pushed urban sprawl toward the Santa Clarita Valley community 39 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

During a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors hearing Thursday, residents said another sign flashing 24 hours, another store selling beer and wine and Twinkies, another gasoline storage tank would be, as one woman put it, “stressful to residents and livestock living nearby.”

Applicant Michael S. Crigler, one of the owners of the one-acre parcel where Atlantic Richfield Co. wants to build the mini-mart, said he suspected the opposition was stirred up by owners of nearby businesses “that don’t want the competition” and by homeowners near the site.

“I realize that a gas station is not the most exciting thing to come to a neighborhood,” Crigler said. “But, the further you get from the site, the less people are concerned what goes there.”

Supervisors unanimously voted to deny a zoning change for the project and one of them, Mike Antonovich, asked the property owners to try to find another commercial use for the land, such as “a fine restaurant, a major market and shopping center. . . .”

“The community already has a large number of mini-marts on the west side of the freeway and that appears to be sufficient . . . at this time,” Antonovich said, adding that he was particularly concerned that the station was to be open all night and was planning to sell liquor.

After recent Castaic planning meetings, the Santa Clarita Valley Plan was amended to move future trucking-related activities away from the town center.