COUNCIL PLANS SPECIAL MEETING.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Residents contesting plans to bring four new car dealerships to Valencia Auto Row are angry that the City Council has scheduled its hearing of their appeal for a special meeting next month.

Friends of the Santa Clara River, an environmental watchdog group, contends that the environmental report prepared for the project is inadequate and should be redone, according to Vice Chairwoman Barbara Wampole.

``We have serious concerns about this project that deserve to be heard,'' Wampole said. ``The council clearly wants this to go through without giving it due consideration.''

The appeal is scheduled to be heard during a 5:30 p.m. special council meeting July 8, because Councilman Cameron Smyth would be unable to attend the regular council meeting that week, city officials said.

Wampole objects to the time of the meeting. ``Most people aren't even home by 5:30 p.m., and no one has a chance to eat dinner by then,'' she said. ``The council is making a serious mistake.''

The group petitioned the council to hear the appeal during the regular 6 p.m. Santa Clarita City Council meeting July 9, which would allow more residents to attend the session.

``We all wanted to be present for this important decision,'' said Councilwoman Marsha McLean. ``Having a special meeting seemed like the right thing to do.''

In May, the Santa Clarita Planning Commission unanimously approved The Newhall Land and Farming Company's expansion plans, which will take the dealership zone east along Valencia Boulevard from Creekside Road and in front of the popular William S. Hart PONY League Baseball and Softball Complex.

Under the proposal, Cinema Drive will be extended across Valencia Boulevard and provide smoother access to the PONY League complex. The youth ball fields will remain behind the new dealerships at Valencia Boulevard and Cinema Drive.

The city's study of the project found that the environmental impacts caused by the project have already been addressed by the North Valencia Specific Plan environmental report, which was approved by the City Council in 2000.

However, Friends of the Santa Clara River is concerned that the project will harm the waterway. It opposes Newhall Land's plans to use ``soil cement'' to stabilize the banks of the Santa Clara River to prevent recurrence of the flooding that wiped out some of the ball fields during storms.

The group also wants the 460,000 cubic yards of dirt that Newhall Land proposes to use to level off the site tested for toxic chemicals.

That dirt will come from Larry Rasmussen's Centre Pointe Business Park, which is adjacent to the defunct Bermite explosives factory. Bermite is polluted with about 40 toxic chemicals.

At the most recent council meeting, McLean called on Newhall Land to allow the city to hire a consultant to test the dirt and make the results public.

An additional 94,000 cubic yards of dirt will be taken to another Newhall Land development site at Tourney Road on Magic Mountain Parkway.

The dirt-hauling operation will take five months and put 50 trucks an hour on some of the most congested roads in Santa Clarita, including Soledad Canyon Road and Bouquet Canyon Road, between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Plans for the project also call for two of the four wells on the 13-acre site to be closed and for the drilling of two new wells.

Lynne Plambeck, first vice president for the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment, said she was concerned that drilling new wells could inadvertently spread the pollution in the Saugus Aquifer that already closed four municipal wells.

With 17 dealerships now, Auto Row is a significant contributor to the city of Santa Clarita's budget, which is dependent on a share of locally generated sales tax revenue.

The auto dealers generate nearly a quarter of Santa Clarita's sales tax receipts, which make up a majority of the city's general fund that is used to pay for projects from road resurfacing to new park construction.

``I'm in favor of expanding this city's tax base and doing it sooner, rather than later,'' McLean said, adding that most of her concerns over the project were allayed after a recent meeting with the Santa Clarita Automobile Dealers Association and Rasmussen.