College and Conservancy Clash Over Oaks

An owl peered down from a massive valley oak tree set among rolling hills overlooking the College of the Canyons.

Other than two teenagers hiking along the narrow dirt paths that crisscross what conservationists say is one of the last remaining valley oak habitats in the Santa Clarita Valley, the scene looks much as it did when it was discovered two centuries ago.

The unspoiled savanna was once home to Native Americans who harvested acorns for food and used wild tobacco as a muscle relaxant, conservationists say. Today, horned lizards, leaf-nosed bats and migratory birds still live among the valley oaks, Mariposa lilies and other native plants.

“This is a little oasis of nature,” said Cynthia Neal-Harris, a Newhall resident and member of the Santa Clarita Oak Conservancy. “It is a very pleasant and peaceful place.”

But the silence will be broken next month when bulldozers begin plowing under the savanna to make room for 1,870 parking spaces for the community college, about 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

College officials say the $4.5-million parking lot is necessary to accommodate a projected surge in enrollment from 10,000 to 20,000 by 2008.

Thursday night, the Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees unanimously approved College of the Canyons’ plans to uproot 32 valley oak trees, level rolling hills and remove 525,000 cubic yards of dirt from the 15-acre site at the campus’ southern end along Rockwell Canyon Road.

In return, college officials plan to set aside 10 to 15 acres of land for a permanent conservation area that would include 300 oaks, native plants and hiking trails.

But the plans did little to mollify local environmentalists, who say college officials should scrap the parking plan and leave the savanna intact.

“I am flabbergasted,” said Virginia Colwell Kilpatrick, president of Citizens for Government Integrity, a local government watchdog group.

Opponents contend that college officials have brushed aside residents’ concerns about the environment by not drafting a full environmental impact report for the project, but rather issuing a plan to lessen the parking lot’s impact on the community.

College spokeswoman Sue Bozman vehemently denied the criticism, saying the school has put forth a concerted effort to balance the needs of students and residents.

“We are caught between a rock and a hard place,” Bozman said. “We are mandated to serve our students’ educational needs. At the same time, we have changed the project several times to reduce the number of trees and land that would be impacted.”

School officials have tried to be sensitive to the environment by reducing from 114 to 32 the number of trees targeted for removal, Bozman said.

Originally, campus officials planned to dig up 525,000 cubic yards of dirt, she said. Now, construction crews will haul 300,000 cubic yards off campus, saving 82 trees.

Officials issued a less comprehensive mitigation declaration for the project, Bozman said, because the college plans to draft a full environmental impact report with its 10-year educational master plan later this year.

Until the parking lot is completed in February, Bozman said, the college will continue to operate a shuttle service between the campus and Valencia Town Center.