CRITICS OPPOSE PLAN TO EXPAND SAN FRANCISQUITO DEVELOPMENT.

Byline: Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writer

Santa Clarita city officials and environmentalists fear a proposal to develop thousands of homes in San Francisquito Canyon could adversely impact the area, creating extra traffic, crowded parks, strained libraries, more crime and pollution.

Developers of the Tesoro del Valle housing project are expected to ask the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to change the zoning and its general plan to allow not just 1,109 homes, but 2,502.

Lynne Plambeck, a vice president of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment, said there are already enough housing projects approved in the Santa Clarita Valley to absorb all the growth county planners predict will come to this area in the next 25 years.

Tesoro should be downsized, delayed or denied by the supervisors, Plambeck said.

Jeffrey Lambert, who heads Santa Clarita's planning department, is also unhappy with the proposal.

``Tesoro is kind of the worst of land-use planning,'' Lambert said. ``How far can we push out to the edge of the valley without ruining the way of life out here? This issue goes so far beyond Tesoro. It goes beyond what we can have out here.''

One mile north of Santa Clarita in the San Francisquito Canyon, the land for the project is owned by the Clougherty family. On the 1,795 acres, Evans/Collins Community Builders of Newport Beach, which represents the Clougherty family, would build 1,601 houses, 901 condominium units, a 5.6-acre shopping center, a fire station, schools, 65-acre athletic fields and an interpretive center.

The project is outside the city limits, and the county planning commission approved it.

Neither officials from the developer nor the company's attorney returned calls seeking comment last week, but some Santa Clarita residents familiar with the development proposal defended it against the critics.

Dave Blazey, president of the Youth Sports Association of the Santa Clarita Valley, said the city is ignoring the benefits of Tesoro.

``I think it's a terrific project. I think it's going to be a benefit to the Santa Clarita Valley and definitely, if it's approved, it's going to be a benefit to the youth of the valley,'' he said.

Blazey said 4,000 people have sent letters in support of the project, and many have signed a petition urging the city not to sue to stop the project.

He also said the developer has met with Fire Department and school officials to reach agreements on issues of concern.

Alexander Bowie, the attorney handling the mitigation negotiations for the Hart and Saugus school districts, said a conceptual agreement has been reached with the developers and the Saugus district. In a January letter to the county, the cost of that mitigation was estimated at $5.9 million. Negotiations with Hart and the developer have not been finalized, he said.

The project's 65-acre park - which will have an all-weather track, baseball diamonds, football and soccer fields - will be considered a private facility for insurance purposes, but only the track will be fenced. As soon as the park can be annexed into Santa Clarita, Blazey said, the park will be given to the city.

Blazey said his organization examined the project closely before lending its support. He said in addition to the sports land, the project offers benefits such as six miles of equestrian trials and artificial lakes to filter storm drain water before it reaches the river.

But Gail Ortiz, a spokeswoman for the city, called the proposed development ``a prime example of urban sprawl.''

``Tell me there's no environmental impact there,'' she said.

Lambert said the developer will extend Copper Hill Drive to Rye Canyon Road, but it will still dump all its cars onto overcrowded McBean Parkway. And the developer is hoping someone else will pay to extend Newhall Ranch Road to the Golden State Freeway, he said.

Another concerned citizen is Nancy Fretheim, who left her job as an officer at the Los Angeles Police Department after seven years and two babies to become a work-at-home mom. Her husband kept his day job, but they sunk their savings and her pension into the Amber Rose Ranch, where she boards and trains horses across the street from Tesoro.

``Horses and cities don't mingle,'' she said.

Fretheim said she and her customers and her ranching neighbors are worried the horses won't be welcome in the area as it develops, as trails are cut off, as residents sneer at the smell and flies, as more smog gets trapped in the canyon, as private wells are contaminated and as the next developer up the canyon licks his chops at the possibility of another housing tract.

Fretheim says she has no problem with the Clougherty family building the 1,109 homes allowed for the property, but the developer is expected to ask for more than double that number. When she bought the San Francisquito ranch 13 years ago, she had a reasonable expectation that the Tesoro property would not be dramatically rezoned.

``It's about politics and power and money,'' Fretheim said. ``The Santa Clarita Valley is turning into what the San Fernando Valley has become. And I don't want to see that.''

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Photo: (color) Nancy Fretheim lives across the street from the proposed Tesoro del Valle housing project in San Francisquito Canyon, which she worries will endanger her horse training and boarding operation with complaints and pollution. The developer is expected to ask the county to allow construction of more than 2,500 units on 1,795 acres, up from the 1,109 now zoned.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News