DEVELOPMENT PLANS INCLUDE RETAIL SPACE DEVELOPERS SAY MORE RETAIL STORES NEEDED IN PLACERITA CANYON.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Developers of Golden Valley Ranch say the commercial component woven into their 866-home proposal for Placerita Canyon would be larger in scale than a neighborhood shopping plaza and fill a retail vacuum in Canyon Country.

With frontage on the Antelope Valley Freeway between the Golden Valley Road and Via Princessa interchanges, the 51-acre retail center would target shoppers from Santa Clarita's east side - where there are few higher-end retail choices - plus freeway commuters further east from such areas as Acton and Agua Dulce, said developer John W. Jameson, of PacSun LLC.

Pasadena-based PacSun wants to develop a 1,310-acre site in rural Placerita Canyon into 335 acres of single-family homes worth up to $450,000. The homes would be built in three cluster-style neighborhoods and a 611,000-square-foot shopping plaza would anchor the project.

Plans also include an elementary school site, a 10-acre public park, seven miles of hiking and equestrian trails and 865 acres of preserved open space. PacSun is seeking the city's annexation of the total project, which is proposed adjacent to city boundaries south of Newhall and west of Sand Canyon.

On review before the city Planning Commission and still in early planning stages, developers at this point have not committed retailers to the project, but have determined that the marketing potential for that area is prime for retail, said Jameson.

Golden Valley Ranch would offer more than the basic needs stores seen in other recent residential developments, such as grocery, drug and video stores, dry cleaners and hair salons, Jameson said.

``You might see something along the lines of a Target or Wal-Mart next door to a home store like Linens N' Things, or a bookstore or restaurant,'' Jameson said. ``At this point, we have not talked about a grocery store in the mix. The Pardee homes being built right near that area already has something like that planned.''

A variety of stores - comparable in selection to Valencia Marketplace in Stevenson Ranch, said Jameson - could bring the city of Santa Clarita $800,000 to $1 million in annual tax revenues, according to project planning documents.

The city has for years regarded Valencia Marketplace and its commercial tax base as a major advantage of annexing Stevenson Ranch, a county-governed community just west of the Golden State Freeway. But residents, who must agree to annexation by a majority vote, continue to debate the issue. Also, the owner of the shopping center is bound by terms of the sale from The Newhall Land and Farming Company to reject annexation.

City Planning Manager Vince Bertoni agreed the city considers the plaza's projected sales tax revenue as a major advantage for annexation.

But he said the proposed Golden Valley Ranch plaza also would help expand Canyon Country's job base and answer that area's demand for more retail.

``Canyon Country residents have told us for years they want more shopping in that area and that all the retail has been going to the west side of the city,'' Bertoni said.

The city in recent years worked to ``get the economic engine up and running in Canyon Country,'' he said, by luring such projects as the future Santa Clarita Business Park and new Edwards Cinema shopping plaza.

The nearest major retail centers are located at the city's west side in the Valencia Town Center or Stevenson Ranch.

A shopping plaza at Golden Valley Ranch also would ease some east-west traffic through the city, Jameson said.

He added, ``In conversations we've had with people from the retail community, we've found there's a need to bookend the Santa Clarita Valley with retail centers.''

``The feedback we've gotten so far has been positive of (the shopping plaza),'' Bertoni said. ``The objections we're hearing from residents, so far, have been about the housing clusters closer to their homes.''

Firmly attached as a component within Golden Valley Ranch development plans, housing approval might be the most significant hurdle the commercial plaza will face.

As a whole, the project proposal has drawn objections from residents and naturalists from Placerita and Sand Canyon neighborhoods, who fear that residential development will ruin the rural aesthetics of that undeveloped area, create traffic on Placerita Canyon Road and encroach upon wildlife habitat.