CHANGE BRINGS CONCERN IN AREA NEW HOUSING MAY BRING WOES.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

The two plots of land near Sierra Highway blend neatly today into the wide canyons around them but the people who live here on the outskirts see change on the horizon.

Two new housing developments are in the works -- one rests in Canyon Country, the other sits in sleepy Acton.

Both have sparked some reaction from neighbors living in between who don't know one another today but have more in common than they ever knew.

``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 finds the two-lane highway outside his window a dangerous place, and said it will only get worse with more people driving it.

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 out of his store and headed down Sierra Highway a few miles, he'd pass a few ranches, some horses and eventually he'd come upon the 140 acres reserved for seven new homes near Wright Road. The development falls 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's more concerned about the 75 homes proposed near Sierra Highway and Vasquez Canyon Road. He's 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 to ride 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 rests 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 to still 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 the 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 mosquitos, he said.

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

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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