ACTON-AGUA DULCE PEOPLE SEE GROWTH ALTERING WAY OF LIFE.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

ACTON -- The two plots of land near Sierra Highway blend neatly today into the wide canyons around them, but the people who live in the area see change on the horizon.

Two new housing developments are in the works. One site is on the western edge of Agua Dulce. The other is in Acton.

Both projects have sparked some reaction from neighbors living in between who don't know one another today but have much in common.

``Unless they do something about our streets, water and sewage, they shouldn't build more homes here,'' said Tony Mashhour.

Mashhour runs Pepper Tree Liquor, a lone convenience store and gas station along a barren stretch of Sierra Highway. Although the new residents would bring business to Mashhour's shop, the Agua Dulce resident views the two-lane highway outside his window as dangerous and sure to become more so with traffic.

Sierra Highway serves as a major thoroughfare from Palmdale to Santa Clarita, and many commuters travel the road as an alternative to the Antelope Valley Freeway.

If Mashhour took a right turn out of his store and headed down Sierra Highway a few miles, he'd pass a few ranches and some horses, and eventually he'd come upon 140 acres reserved for seven new homes near Wright Road. The acreage is east of Sierra Highway and ``leans'' against the wide, towering canyons around it.

He might also meet Jeff Sutherland, a 37-year-old who lives in a tiny community tucked behind Wright Road, a dirt road lined with white fences.

When the Canyon Country man learned of the seven homes going in, he shrugged. He is more concerned about the 75 homes proposed near Sierra Highway and Vasquez Canyon Road. He is seeing change all around.

``It's going to happen,'' Sutherland said. ``If you really want to get away from people, you have to get really far, and that's not worth it.''

But if Sutherland and Mashhour took a small road trip north up Sierra Highway, past the sun-scorched fields, random community churches and mom-and-pop restaurants, they might come across Acton's Jessica Hecker.

The 15-year-old is concerned about another housing development. This one includes 39 new single-family homes across a wide chunk of land that Hecker and others find ideal for riding dirt bikes, go-karts and horses.

A dirt trail winds its way across the 80-acre property at Bandell Street and Crown Valley Road. The area is along the floor of a canyon, and the slightest movement sends dust clouds swirling into the air.

It's a legendary place for off-road sports, said Hecker, who has even driven a golf cart there. She expects people still to ride in that area after homes are built.

``They might have a lot of annoyed neighbors,'' she said.

If Mashhour, Sutherland and Hecker on her dirt bike headed to the proposed plot, they'd likely stumble on Bryan Carlton, who lives adjacent to the development.

Carlton has enjoyed his 11 years of peace in the area, minus the noise from people riding on the dirt path and kicking up dust.

But his biggest concern about the new homes is the water that will drain from their lawns into a catch basin at the end of the road. It could pool and gather mosquitoes, he said.

``No, I'm not really excited about the homes,'' he said. ``But more than anything -- all the mosquitoes.''

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