APARTMENTS WIN OK OVER PROTESTS.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The city's center will be reshaped by 341 apartments that will be built on Magic Mountain Parkway and McBean Parkway, city officials said.

A dozen residents of the Town Center Drive area asked the commissioners to reject the proposal to build the three- and four-story apartment complex in the parking lot of the Spectrum Athletic Club, saying it would lower their quality of life by creating a parking and traffic nightmare.

``The residents of this valley want security,'' said Jerry Abramowitz, president of the Avignon Homeowners Association. ``High density is not conducive to this end.''

The 4-1 vote came Tuesday after a lengthy discussion of the city's General Plan, which identifies this area as the ``downtown'' of the Santa Clarita Valley and encourages apartment living. Commissioner Rob Parris voted no.

Since the project's first hearing before the Planning Commission, The Hanover Co., which is developing the project in conjunction with The Newhall Land and Farming Company, reduced the height of part of the complex to three stories from four, eliminated 16 apartments and analyzed the impact of the apartments on parking at the Town Center mall.

In other news, the Placerita Canyon Property Owners Association vowed Wednesday to appeal the Planning Commission's approval of a new dorm for The Master's College.

Tuesday's 4-1 vote came after the commissioners directed the small Christian college to add 55 parking spaces to the lot for the dorm, saying plans for 31 parking stalls were insufficient. Chairman Dennis Ostrom was the lone dissenter.

``We'll bend over backward to comply with the commission,'' said Richard Mayhue, the college's vice president.

The property owners association told the commission the dorm would worsen the already unmanageable parking crunch in Placerita Canyon. Many homeowners said students park illegally along Placerita Canyon Road and Placeritos Boulevard, blocking their homes.

If the 900-student college cannot add the spaces on the Placerita Canyon campus, it will have to apply for an off-site parking permit, said city Planning Manager Vince Bertoni.

Those spaces might be available at the nearby Placerita Canyon Baptist Church, Mayhue said.

Mayhue said the college intended to hold off on plans to build a 1,200-seat chapel adjacent to the school's gymnasium until a formal master plan is complete for the campus. That is expected to take at least 18 months, Bertoni said.

Earlier this year, the Planning Commission rejected plans for a chapel/auditorium, saying it did not fit in the rural, equestrian community. Mayhue said the college has scaled back plans for the chapel building and put aside plans for a performing arts center.

Last week, The Master's College told city officials it had reached an agreement with the property owners association. In return for shelving plans for the chapel/auditorium until the master plan was complete, the association would not oppose construction of the planned dorm, according to college President John D. MacArthur.

However, the association's members said no agreement had been reached, and several asked the commission to reject plans for the dorm.

Also Tuesday, the Planning Commission recommended that the City Council approve construction of 267 homes in Canyon Country despite concerns that the project is too dense for the property's steep hillside.

The commissioners, by a 3-2 vote, deemed the project ``innovative,'' which allows the developer, Jack Shine, to build more homes than the city's hillside and ridgeline ordinance otherwise would allow.

``This would be a perfect project anywhere else,'' said Commissioner Michael Berger, who voted against the development along with Ostrom. ``But here, it sets a bad precedent.''

Ostrom said an innovative project should provide a tangible benefit to the entire city.

``The benefits of this project are only derived by the people who live there,'' Ostrom said.

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the issue June 26.