CITY COUNCIL TO VIEW ROADWAYS' FATE; NEIGHBORHOOD'S RESIDENTS WANT 2 NEWHALL ARTERIES TURNED INTO CUL-DE-SACS.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

Calgrove Boulevard and Valley Street residents seeking to block through traffic by reconfiguring their roads as cul-de-sacs might have to yield to public hearings and a city feasibility study.

The issue involves whether Valley Street is a secondary, public roadway that should be kept open at its southern end to aid traffic flow.

The residents' request after months of heated negotiations would require an amendment to the city's General Plan because the cul-de-sacs would change Valley Street's official designation as a secondary road, city traffic engineer Bahman Janka said.

The Santa Clarita City Council will consider four options tonight before making a permanent determination of the two roadways' level of public accessibility. The council will meet at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.

Instead of making a recommendation to the City Council, the traffic planning staff outlined the pros and cons of each option and requested direction to proceed, Janka said, noting the issue is a sensitive one.

``This is a difficult issue, but it's more of a political issue than a technical issue,'' said Janka. ``There's no win-win situation here. You're going to make some people unhappy no matter what you do.''

Public sentiment is expected to play heavily on the council's decision. Calgrove and Valley residents last month put 15 years of discord behind them and are anxious for the City Council's approval of their joint proposal to close off both streets and eliminate a private gate between the two.

But city officials say a number of individual residents from other nearby neighborhoods want the two roadways open to all traffic. Residents from the Oakridge, Oaks and La Salle developments, as well as several dissenters from Calgrove and Valley Street, called or sent correspondence to city officials arguing that barricades serve only select residents, traffic engineer Anthony J. Nisich said in a memo to council members.

Janka said any directive chosen by the council tonight would require feasibility studies that take into account subdivision regulations, effects on traffic in surrounding areas and the impact on public safety services.

Alternatives to the cul-de-sac proposal include:

Enhancing the public portion of the roadway and requiring Hidden Valley residents to continue operating the private, mechanical gate.

Making Calgrove and Valley cul-de-sacs and requiring Hidden Valley residents to continue operating their private gate so they could pass through.

Creating permanent barricades at each road's terminus that could be reopened to public-safety vehicles in emergency situations.

Opening the public roadway at the connection of Valley and Calgrove to all traffic and investigating the use of traffic calming measures, such as traffic circles, stop signs and speed bumps.

Linda Redel, a resident of the Happy Valley neighborhood on Valley Street, is unhappy that city staff included the fourth option.

``It's always been a public road with a terminus at the end,'' said Redel of Valley Street. ``It's not like either road has ever been opened to the public before. Obviously other groups have a right to their own opinion, but they moved into their neighborhoods knowing that opening those roads to the public was not an option.''

The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission approved the gate's installation at the entrance to Hidden Valley in 1983 at the request of Happy Valley residents, whose Valley Street ended in wilderness before the Hidden Valley tract and others opened off Calgrove Boulevard in 1985.

With the exception of a brief period following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, the gate has restricted passage between the two roads to Hidden Valley residents, who use special cards to activate the gate's mechanical arm and maintain it with homeowners association dues.

Until last month, the gate had been the subject of sporadic disputes over the last 15 years between Happy Valley residents on Valley Street and Hidden Valley residents on Calgrove Boulevard.

But following a sudden change in one homeowners association's leadership in August, Hidden and Happy valley residents resolved to keep access to the roads restricted - either by creating cul-de-sacs or keeping the gate in place - and sought permanent action from the city to support their consensus.

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Photo: (Color) Cars pass through the gate of Valley Street and Calgrove Boulevard in Newhall.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer