PANEL REJECTS CITY'S CALL PLANNING INFLUENCE LIMITED TO SMALLER AREA.

Byline: Naush Boghossian Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Siding with landowners, the Local Agency Formation Commission on Wednesday denied Santa Clarita's bid for an expanded sphere of influence, disappointing and frustrating a city that sees 40,000 homes planned on its borders.

In fact, the commission granted the city an area even smaller than the 32 square miles its staff had recommended in a report released June 1.

``We didn't even get what the commission had recommended,'' said Jeff Lambert, director of planning and building services for Santa Clarita. ``We got less than that.''

The city was looking to expand its sphere of influence from 47 square miles to 115 square miles, to allow Santa Clarita officials a formal say in development that occurs in the unincorporated areas just outside its boundaries. The city and its residents still have a say at the county level on developments that occur in surrounding areas, but the sphere would have formalized their participation in the process.

But the staff recommended an amended sphere encompassing the area north of its current borders to include all of Saugus and San Francisquito Creek.

``They gave us planning over open space where no development will occur,'' Councilman Frank Ferry said of the largely rustic canyon area.

Seven of the nine commissioners voted to exclude from the sphere the property owned by Richard Wirth at the southern portion of the city's boundary. The city's proposed sphere bisected his land.

City leaders believe that LAFCO effectively shut the door on any possibility of compromising on the sphere's boundaries.

``We can submit an amended application tomorrow, but the commission made it clear today that it would be a waste of our time,'' Lambert said Wednesday.

Ferry agreed that the commission wouldn't bend.

``To me it was a clear sign by LAFCO that the city's boundaries are not to extend west of the 5 (Golden State Freeway) and east of the 14 (Antelope Valley Freeway),'' Ferry said.

Supporters of the expanded sphere maintained all along that the large property owners and developers who opposed the project heavily influenced LAFCO's actions.

``It comes down to the landowners and developers lobbying successfully to preclude us,'' Ferry said.

At the three-hour hearing, the commission heard a stream of comments from the public both in support of the expanded sphere and from those opposed, but they expressed the most concern for accommodating the interests of the smaller landowners.

Property owner Kevin Lynch, who owns land on the northern part of the city's boundary, was one of the small-landowners interested in staying out of the sphere. He said that the city's vision was not the same as those who live on ranches and rural areas.

``All the services we have by the county are adequate. The city won't add anything,'' Lynch said. ``But the key is they want to impose certain regulations about use of the property.''

The commission was not swayed by Councilmen Cameron Smyth and Ferry, who reiterated the overwhelming public support for the expanded sphere, and set out to describe Santa Clarita as a fiscally sound, stable community with a budget of more than $100 million that has been able to balance economic development with protecting the area's natural resources.

And, despite a letter of support from large landowner AOL Time Warner - with plans to develop 230 acres west of the Golden State Freeway - the commission showed no interest in residents and landowners who wanted to be included.

``It's unfortunate. They spent all their time focusing on excluding people and accommodating all of them, but they ignored the written requests by Stevenson Ranch and Time Warner to be included,'' Lambert said.

There was a recommendation by Commissioner Carol Herrera to delay the vote and have the staff reconfigure the sphere's boundaries to accommodate those who chose to be included and those who wanted to be excluded.

The idea was quickly dismissed by other commissioners who felt it would be logistically impossible.

Commissioner Zev Yaroslavsky disagreed with the idea, stating that such action would lead to complications.

``We can't parcel off those individual property owners who want to be excluded because you're setting yourself up for an island situation,'' Yaroslavsky said. The commissioners reasoned that areas like the AOL Time Warner property and Stevenson Ranch that wanted to be part of the city of Santa Clarita could easily file applications to annex to Santa Clarita.

CAPTION(S):

map

Map:

Sphere of Influence

Traci Wooden/Staff Artist