Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Environmental Groups Try to Stop Arbor Park Condos : Development: County panel approved the Valencia project on 20 acres of flood control plain last month.

Two environmental groups have appealed the preliminary county approval of a 195-unit condominium project along a tributary of the Santa Clara River because they claim that the residences could be subject to flooding.

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission gave unanimous approval last month to the first phase of the Arbor Park project, which would place the condominiums on 20 acres of flood control plain next to Bouquet Creek in Valencia.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the project Nov. 6.

But the condos will be subject to flooding because of the development’s proximity to the river, said Lynn Plambeck, vice president for the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment (SCOPE).

Flood control measures that narrow the river will speed it up, causing flooding, reducing ground water supplies and eroding downstream property, Plambeck said. In addition, she said, the project appears to be above an earthquake fault.

Plambeck said the housing project is relatively small, but she noted that commercial development and other projects also are planned for the area.

“We need to address the cumulative impact of various projects,” she said. “If we allow one project to go in, they will continue to do projects in the flood plain.”

The appeal, filed last week by SCOPE and Friends of the Santa Clara River, is necessary so that the Board of Supervisors will review the project in detail, Plambeck said.

Most of Bouquet Creek has been lined with concrete during the past three years by the developer, Newhall Land and Farming Co., as part of a flood control plan.

Newhall Land spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer said the process, called channelizing, has nothing to do with Arbor Park: it is for an already approved commercial project nearby and to protect a bridge near Newhall Ranch Road.

The bottoms of Bouquet Creek and the Santa Clara River are not paved, she added. In addition, Lauffer said, large boulders known as “rip rap” are being placed at the bottom of the river to slow down the velocity of the water.

Lauffer said studies by the county and other government agencies have not revealed a fault line under the property. She said a fault line is nearby, but in that regard, the property “is not that much different than most of Southern California.”

The first phase of the project could be completed by the fall of 1995, with an additional 55 units planned at a future date.

Plambeck said the appeal is focusing on the condominium project because “once they go in it’s impossible to design any other way for flood control measures for the river.”

Studies indicate the condominiums will be safe from flooding, Lauffer said.

But Plambeck said other supposedly “safe” flood channels have failed. “You really can’t control a river,” she said. “It’s nice and we think we can control it, but rivers don’t always do what we expect them to do.”