NO MAIN ROADS, THANKS THOROUGHFARES NEEDED, BUT UNWANTED.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The City Council had heard all of the arguments before, in one form or another.

The additional lane of traffic on McBean Parkway between Valencia Boulevard and the Golden State (I-5) Freeway would place their children in danger, resident after resident argued from the podium.

The additional truck traffic would rattle their homes and slice their property values.

The rural feeling of McBean, the entrance into the city, would be obliterated by the removal of the trees.

And the outcome was the same: A sharply divided council voted with the residents, and against the recommendation of city staff members.

For two decades, the Santa Clarita Valley has been trying to make it possible for residents to move around their community by building new roads and expanding old ones.

But at every turn, the council and Planning Commission have been stymied by fierce opposition from neighborhoods not wanting to cope with the extra cars, trucks and buses in their back yards - even though it would ease congestion throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. The bruising council fight last week over McBean Parkway is just the first skirmish in what is expected to be a war over traffic in Santa Clarita.

``It would be in the best interests of 152,000 people to expand McBean,'' Councilman Frank Ferry said. ``It's my job to represent all of them, not just the 100 people that fill the council chambers. How can you in good conscience not utilize the major roads to their full capacity?''

Ferry, along with Mayor Pro Tem Laurene Weste, voted to expand McBean after a contentious meeting marked by sniping between council members and residents.

``We've had this argument on every piece of road,'' said Anthony Nisich, the city's director of traffic and engineering services.

In the next few months, the council will consider removing the barricades along Valley Street and Calgrove Boulevard and reducing the under-construction Golden Valley Road to four lanes while restricting truck traffic.

``There are simply not enough roads,'' Nisich said. ``And people just don't want the traffic on their streets. But that means the cars are on someone else's streets. It is a zero-sum game.''

In three cases, concerns about traffic have resulted in gating roads that could provide critical throughways, but instead are restricted to residents only.

At the same time, nearly 40,000 new homes have been approved for construction in the Santa Clarita Valley in the next two decades. Yet, only one new major road is under construction.

Gates debated

The gate at Valley Street and Calgrove Boulevard, blocking a route to the Golden State (5) Freeway, is the subject of two lawsuits against the city, one seeking to remove the barricades, the other seeking to turn the street into a cul de sac.

``Opening the street would destroy a community because the street was never designed to open,'' said Hunt Braly, a lawyer representing the Hidden Valley Home Owners Association and the Alamitos Lane Home Owners Association.

However, other homeowners want to see the road opened and redesignated a local collector road, with measures put in place to control the speed and the volume of the traffic.

``Then it could funnel off some of the traffic and become an important part of the circulation plan,'' said Glenda Bona, of Citizens Against Barricades. ``Over-congestion doesn't have to happen.''

The city is planning to release a report in the coming weeks on the environmental impacts of the barricades and gate along Valley Street and Calgrove Boulevard.

``Everyone hates sitting through an extra traffic signal on Lyons Avenue,'' Nisich said. ``But no one realizes that extra signal may be due to the barricade on Calgrove.''

The Valley-Calgrove gate is one of three major streets that are gated in Santa Clarita that could ease congestion and provide harried drivers another way to get around the city if opened, Nisich said.

After incorporating in 1987, the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting new gated thoroughfares.

Yet in 1995, a judge's ruling in a lawsuit against the city allowed the Placerita Canyon Homeowners Association to gate the privately owned Placerita Canyon Road after the city stopped maintaining it. On a map, Placerita Canyon Road, with ramps to the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway, appears a solution traffic-plagued San Fernando Road, but property owners don't want the liability.

``It was the only solution we could come up with,'' said Chris Townsley, the chief financial officer for the Placerita Canyon Corp. ``The road couldn't handle the volume of traffic.''

Initial construction the key

A similar set of circumstances led to the closure of Rainbow Glen Drive, which connects Soledad Canyon Road to Sierra Highway.

``If they wanted it to be an arterial, they should have built it that way in the first place,'' said Mel Cunningham, the past president of the Scenic Hills Homeowners Association.

Both Rainbow Glen Drive and Placerita Canyon Road would have to be expanded and improved - at great expense - to be brought up to city code in order to be opened, officials said.

Nisich said he hears from a lot of residents who want the city to be more proactive on traffic issues, to act before it become a crisis.

``This is why we aren't proactive,'' Nisich said. ``Its only when things get bad enough do people stand up and start compromising.''

CAPTION(S):

map

Map: ROADBLOCKS

Three key roads are restricted to residents only