Developer Takes Big Steps to Win Public Support

In an extraordinary effort by a developer to win grass-roots support, builders of a proposed 866-home project in the Santa Clarita Valley are distributing elaborate informational packets with color renderings, aerial maps and answers to opponents’ objections.

Developers routinely send promotional materials to public officials and community leaders. But these packets are being distributed to more than 4,000 neighbors at a cost of some $50,000.

The idea is to build support and weaken opposition in advance of public meetings for the proposed Golden Valley Ranch project.

“Extremely impressive,” said Santa Clarita Planning Commissioner Dennis Ostrom. A former homeowner group president and leading opponent of previous projects at the site, Ostrom called the public relations campaign “a step beyond.”

PacificUS Real Estate Group of Pasadena, through a subsidiary called PacSun, is seeking to build the development on 1,310 acres south of the Antelope Valley Freeway at Golden Valley Road. The parcel stretches from the freeway to Placerita Canyon Road, abuts the Angeles National Forest and is adjacent to the exclusive Sand Canyon community of equestrian estates.

The next step in the developer’s campaign, according to consultant Allan Cameron, is a series of informal meetings with residents, starting Saturday.

Over the last 12 years, seven major proposals on the same site by previous developers were rejected by the community and county planners. Those projects ranged in size from 1,200 to 2,400 units. The Los Angeles County General Plan designates a maximum density of one unit every two acres, or up to 712 homes.

The developer is seeking permission to build 154 more homes than would be allowed under the general plan, but argues that an exception should be made to make the project economically feasible.