Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Supervisors OK Shopping Center : Development: The mall would be the largest in the Santa Clarita Valley. Local officials oppose the project.

Plans for the Santa Clarita Valley’s largest shopping center were approved Thursday by a 5-0 vote of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Valencia Marketplace is to be located west of Santa Clarita, between McBean Parkway and Pico Canyon Road. The plans call for it to include 830,000 square feet of retail space, including department stores, large discount stores and about 35 smaller retail shops and restaurants.

Developer Riley/Pearlman/Mitchell Co. of Brentwood projected that the new mall would generate at least $1.6 million in annual tax revenue for Los Angeles County.

In documents submitted to the board, the developer also said the mall will provide 2,144 jobs. Construction could be completed, the developer said, as early as October, 1995.

The area’s existing regional mall, the Valencia Town Center, opened in September, 1992, and is about 10% smaller.

The approval of the Valencia Marketplace plans by the board was considered the last major hurdle for the project. The matter will be back before the board for final approval in a few weeks, but a rejection at that point in the process would be highly unusual.

Santa Clarita City Council members and city planners opposed the project, saying it would create traffic and law enforcement problems and also take customers from local businesses.

“I’m sick,” City Councilwoman Jan Heidt, who owns a small bookshop in Santa Clarita, said after hearing of the approval.

“When is there enough development? It’s going to be the beginning of the end for small business.”

Heidt earlier told county supervisors that 10 additional sheriff’s deputies would be required to patrol the Valencia Marketplace because its easy freeway access and multiple ATMs could invite crime. No additional deputies were assigned to the center by the board, however.

Supervisors took no action on Santa Clarita’s request for 80% of the center’s tax revenue to offset the expected impact on roads and other services.

“That’s really a part of the budget process rather than the planning process,” said Don Culbertson, county supervising regional planner. “The board left that out of the equation now.”

Also opposing Valencia Marketplace was an environmental group, the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment, whose leaders unsuccessfully argued for the preservation of a wildlife corridor on the property.

SCOPE leaders were further frustrated that Riley/Pearlman/Mitchell Co. will be allowed to cut down and replace 105 oak trees on the property, even though each tree removed will be replaced by two others.

“To me, you can’t make up for cutting down old oaks with planting little oaks,” said Lynne Plambeck, SCOPE vice president.