COMMUTERS IN A CRUNCH JOBS DRIVE FOLKS OUT EACH MORNING AND INTO GRIDLOCK.

Byline: Susan Abram Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Standing in a parking lot at Santa Clarita's notoriously busy Bouquet Junction, Justin Taylor let out a long whistle, the kind that expresses a combination of disbelief and surrender, when he described the traffic crunch during certain peak hours.

``The whole intersection is brutal,'' said the 22-year-old Valencia resident as he took a lunch break at Chi Chi's Pizza one recent afternoon. ``When we moved here 16 years ago, there was nothing here, not even that McDonald's.''

It's the story heard repeatedly throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. People who moved for the serenity of the canyons, where little could be heard save for the chirp of a bird, now find themselves trapped by traffic. They sit in cars backed up miles away from their destinations. The commutes to jobs outside the Santa Clarita Valley they can handle, some say. But the constant stop and go through surface streets just blocks from home has made a large part of the community grumble.

This junction of Soledad Canyon and Bouquet Canyon roads, for example, sees up to 100,000 cars a day. It isn't unusual for emergency vehicles with sirens blaring to be caught in traffic. Firefighters complain that once traffic does move, motorists are unwilling to pull to the side to let a firetruck or ambulance by.

City officials have heard the complaints for years.

According to a recent city survey known as ``The Big Picture,'' of the 1,733 residents who responded last November, 370 filed comments about traffic, which was listed as Santa Clarita's most pressing issue - again.

Residents point to development as the main reason for the ongoing traffic. But city officials say most of the development occurs outside the Santa Clarita boundaries, within Los Angeles County's jurisdiction.

Each year, the city grants 200 permits for new houses. The county approves 2,500.

And now developer Dan Palmer has submitted plans for Las Lomas, a 5,800-home mini-city on the outskirts of Santa Clarita. An environmental impact report shows that the 555-acre project would create 44,000 new car trips each day in the middle of the Golden State and the Antelope Valley freeways. While the land falls just outside Santa Clarita, Palmer is hoping to annex it to the city of Los Angeles, where development standards are less stringent.

City officials also say many of the bigger projects in Santa Clarita occurred before it became a city in 1987. They also say topography, including the Santa Clara River and the ridgelines, have forced planners to offer different solutions. As a result, Santa Clarita is not laid out over a grid pattern.

``Our city is a very young city, and since the time of our incorporation the city staff has taken a much closer look at our infrastructure needs and the circulation needs and understanding that traffic doesn't stop at city boundaries,'' said Lisa Hardy, a senior planner for Santa Clarita. ``Our transportation department works with Los Angeles County. We have a joint computerized traffic model. We're working hand-in-hand to address traffic issues. That's something that wasn't occurring before incorporation.''

Planning Commissioner Rick Winsman agreed, but added that Santa Clarita is still incomplete. The employment sector is not yet balanced with housing, which means more people commute to higher paying jobs outside of the city.

City officials are looking to the Gate King business park planned on 500 acres in Needham Ranch, which will bring in 6,000 jobs and a chance to relieve some commuter congestion.

``We still don't have an accurate picture'' of Santa Clarita, Winsman said. ``If you take the projects we approved such as Centre Point and Gate King, there are no houses there. We're looking for a jobs and housing balance, which means people won't be going out of the valley for jobs.''

Meanwhile, city officials are banking their hopes for traffic relief on the Cross Valley Connector, an 8.5-mile, $250 million roadway that would connect the Valencia Industrial Center, the Antelope Valley Freeway and Golden Valley Road in Canyon Country. It is scheduled to be completed in 2006.

Funding for the project has come from both state and federal funds. Santa Clarita's congressman, Rep. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, includes the Cross Valley Connector as one of his major goals to see completed, he has said.

A second potential traffic reliever would be extending major east-west ``collector'' roads through the Whittaker Bermite property, at the core of Santa Clarita. That property, used by the defense industry for close to a century, cannot be developed until the cleanup of toxins that have polluted not only the land but the groundwater below is completed.

In the meantime, the city's transportation department has been working on various ways to alleviate traffic throughout the city.

``The problem is everybody is accessing one street; that's why the Cross Valley Connector will be so important,'' said Andrew Yi, the city's senior traffic engineer. ``We're being aggressive in signal timing. We're trying to coordinate the signals in the routes, to try to reduce delays. We have done that on McBean (Parkway) and Valencia (Boulevard) and Magic Mountain (Parkway) six months ago. It would reduce 30 to 40 percent more in delays, to better serve the traffic flow. When you have a better flow, there is less stop-and-go.''

Another change in local traffic is the change in speed limits, based on the way people drive and the changing characteristics of a neighborhood, Yi said.

``Our city is different from Burbank and Glendale because our city was more rural 15 years ago,'' Yi said. ``But now we are more urbanized, and that causes the difference.''

For example, after a speed survey conducted two years ago, the limit was changed to 50 mph from 55 mph at Copper Hill Drive between Newhall Ranch Road and Decoro Drive. Speed limits also changed at Magic Mountain Parkway between McBean and Valencia from 50 to 45.

< Santa Clarita City Councilman Frank Ferry, co-chairman of the North County Transportation Alliance, said that in the past, council members would bow to a minority of residents who opposed the widening of a road, or the addition of a highway. The decisions came without considering the future of the valley, he said, which has grown to 200,000 people.

``To me the council has to make decisions that are in the best interests of the community-at-large,'' he said. ``In 1992, when we wanted the Cross Valley Connector and it was going to cost $110 million about 50 residents voted no. Here we are 12 years later, and we're back looking at the same project but now it costs $250 million.''

Ferry said the present council has to consider every project that comes forward.

``Your attitude has to be, you're going to build every road that's on the map,'' he said. ``As city planners and City Council people, we've got to make decisions today for the good of the people in the future.''

Susan Abram, [phone]

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Traffic gets pinched on the Newhall Pass every weekday morning at the intersection of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways. All traffic going from Santa Clarita to Los Angeles must endure the pass.

(2 -- color) For many Santa Clarita residents, this is the view they face each weekday morning as they head through Newhall Pass on their commuting journey to the Greater Los Angeles Area.

David Crane/Staff Photographer