Santa Clarita Moves Toward 377-Acre Annexation

The City Council has taken a major step toward the largest industrial land annexation in Santa Clarita’s eight-year history, voting to take over a 377-acre tract on which Lockheed Martin Corp. plans to expand an existing facility.

City planners project the site on the north end of Rye Canyon Road will be home to about 10,500 jobs in 10 to 20 years, when the proposed buildings are fully occupied.

The vote Tuesday capped two years of negotiations with the aerospace giant, which already owns several buildings on the parcel.

Under an agreement with the council, Lockheed Martin will add new facilities, then rent them out once Santa Clarita assumes jurisdiction over the land from Los Angeles County.

The deal is a winning proposition for both parties, Mayor Carl Boyer said. He said Lockheed will benefit because the city will grant building permits faster than the company would get them from work-swamped county officials and Santa Clarita will boost its tax base.

“The county has a relatively small planning staff and as a result they get hit with backlog,” he said.

Two local environmental groups, Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment (SCOPE) and the Santa Clarita Oaks Conservancy, had opposed the plan at public hearings but neither had representatives at the council vote.

The conservancy cited the uprooting of six oak trees, including a centuries-old heritage oak, to make way for the development. To counter such protests, Lockheed Martin has vowed to create an 89-acre public-access habitat within the grounds, where 100 new oaks would be planted for each of the six to be destroyed.