Paving a Better Life in Palmdale : Neighbors’ fears over commuter parking lot don’t stand up to reality check

The fear of urbanization is stalking an unlikely place, a neighborhood of big houses on wind-swept hillsides above Palmdale that command $400,000 views of the California Aqueduct.

Remarkably, the jitters are caused by plans for a Park and Ride lot near the Antelope Valley Freeway.

Residents of nearby, upscale Ana Verde, sometimes called the Beverly Hills of the Antelope Valley, claim big-city problems follow Park and Ride into family neighborhoods as night follows day.

Said a homeowners’ statement: “The city of Palmdale is attempting to thrust more crime, traffic congestion, noise and air pollution” down their throats. Said an Ana Verde resident: “We feel that crime is like cancer. You want to isolate it. What the city is doing is trying to spread it all over the place.”

This is heartfelt but illogical. Car-poolers are occasionally the victims of crimes in parking lots but hardly a gang of perpetrators. Besides, a security guard will protect this lot. Traffic and pollution? Car-pooling reduces them.

Even if Park and Ride were a threat to law and order, it might be too late to stop it. This particular lot, on Avenue S, will be only a few hundred yards from one up the road. That one holds 600 cars, and 300 more regularly overflow onto adjacent land. Because of the long ride from the north county, cars are crammed onto freeway-convenient space all over the place, and the road has the second-highest passenger-to-car ratio in Los Angeles County.

In other words, parking and riding are gratifyingly out of control here, and the authorities ought to be encouraging as much of it as they possibly can.

Neighbors, unmoved by a fruitless search for another site and promises of landscaping and guards, have appealed to the Palmdale Planning Commission. That failing, they can try City Council.

Their objections should be stilled by the fact that police and sheriff’s officers have seen no crime problems arising from Park and Ride lots near fancy houses in West Hills and La Canada Flintridge. If not, the city will be justified in thanking them for their input, respectfully noting their complaints and moving on to other business.