New Year May Echo the Thunder of the Old : NORTH COUNTY

In Santa Clarita, two long-anticipated issues are expected to come to fruition in 1995.

One is a proposal by BKK Corp. of West Covina to put a 190-million-ton landfill in Elsmere Canyon, east of the Antelope Valley Freeway and just outside Santa Clarita’s boundaries. City officials and business leaders oppose the dump, fearing it will harm the city’s underground water supply, air quality and property values.

A long-delayed environmental impact report, which will be key to the fate of the project, is due for release this month.

Also expected to get underway this year is the redevelopment plan that the Santa Clarita City Council authorized in February to help earthquake recovery, provide affordable housing, revitalize blighted areas and provide infrastructure.

City officials have settled two lawsuits by a local water wholesaler that blocked the plan and can now determine how and where to spend the $854 million budgeted in the 30-year redevelopment blueprint.

In the Antelope Valley, the new year brings both unity and the potential for political upheaval. Lancaster and Palmdale leaders are joining in a campaign to boost the region’s economic vitality, but at the same time residents in Lancaster are awaiting the results of a petition drive to recall council members.

In Lancaster and Palmdale, which benefited from an explosive home-building boom over the past decade, city leaders will concentrate on stepping up their efforts to lure new employers to create jobs close to home for the flood of new residents.

About 40,000 Antelope Valley residents now commute each day to jobs in the Los Angeles area, local officials estimate.

The two cities also may to work together in the coming months to apply for one of two “enterprise zones” authorized by the state Legislature. Companies that relocate to such areas qualify for state tax benefits.

In Lancaster, political acrimony is on the horizon. In November a recall campaign was launched by residents angry about a lucrative new contract awarded to City Manager Jim Gilley. The agreement was added to a City Council agenda with little advance notice.

In response, Concerned Citizens of Lancaster handed intent-to-recall letters to Mayor Frank Roberts and Councilmen George Runner and Henry Hearns, who voted for Gilley’s new contract. These council members denied any wrongdoing, and an anti-recall group was formed to oppose efforts to remove them from office.

Recall proponents will have 180 days to gather about 9,400 signatures of registered voters for each of the targeted council members. If they collect enough signatures, a recall election will be held.