CITY PONDERS PLAN TO SAVE OPEN SPACE.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Steep canyons, vast oak woodlands and rich river bank habitats set the Santa Clarita Valley apart from much of Southern California, and a plan is in the works to protect that land from development.

Santa Clarita's Open Space Acquisition Plan, which is expected to be ratified by the City Council this month, establishes a seven-step evaluation process that officials can use to decide which parcels of land to acquire, how much they are worth and how to pay for them.

``This plan will allow us to get the biggest bang for our buck,'' said Dave Peterson, the project coordinator. ``We need to maximize our limited financial resources.''

In city surveys, residents said the dwindling amount of pristine land is the second biggest threat to the quality of life in the Santa Clarita Valley, behind traffic congestion, Peterson said.

The burgeoning desire to preserve untouched land must be balanced against developers' desire to build homes here and a statewide housing crunch, officials said.

``We're at a crossroads as the city matures,'' Peterson said. ``We need to have a set policy in place.''

The plan's overriding concern is how much the open space in question will cost to maintain, Peterson said. Each acre of undeveloped open space is expected to cost the city a minimum of $800 a year to care for.

A significant source of strain on the 2002-03 city budget is the roughly $700,000 increase in the cost of maintaining the city's parks, including several new ones that have opened over the last year, and open space. The plan's top priority is to create a greenbelt around the Santa Clarita Valley, stretching across the San Gabriel and the Santa Susana mountain ranges, and to create corridors to the Angeles National Forest.

That goal is threatened by the proposed development of 5,800 homes along the San Gabriel ridgeline and the still-possible landfill in Elsmere Canyon, both just outside the city's limits, officials said.

Preserving open space in the Santa Clarita Valley has been among the top priorities of the City Council, which has focused much of its ambitious capital improvement budget on building parks and preserving undeveloped land.

``This plan will be a great tool,'' said Parks and Recreation Commissioner Karin Nelson.

Last year, the city made several purchases of large parcels of undeveloped land, including Whitney Canyon, 38 acres adjacent to the Santa Clarita Sports Complex and 158 acres in Quigley Canyon.

The plan, which took two years to craft, places the highest value on land outside the city limits that is scheduled for imminent development, and suggests a variety of ways to acquire and maintain those properties.

While the plan considers placing an open space bond on a future ballot or creating an open space assessment district to raise money for the purchases, it suggests that the city evaluate the purchases on a case-by-case basis.

The adoption of the plan will also make it easier for the city to apply for and receive grants from the state and federal government, Peterson said.