SAN FERNANDO VALLEY RESIDENTS DRAWN TO SCV.

Byline: Amy Collins Daily News Staff Writer

Karen Knopp grew up in the San Fernando Valley and isn't considering going back.

Now married with two small children, she's lived in Saugus for seven years and is looking to make a move, but within the Santa Clarita Valley.

``It's really geared toward kids. It has good schools. It's really safe. It has a good mix of people,'' she said Saturday morning while touring the lots of her potential new home site in Valencia.

Knopp, 34, is typical of the kinds of people crushing a path on the new carpets of model homes in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Marla Louise Buckert is a new home sales consultant for Beazer Homes USA Inc.'s Summertime homes in Valencia. She said the buyers she talks to are attracted to the area for its quality of life, safety, good schools, shopping, recreation and the master-planned environment.

``It's a general feeling that they're seeing a deterioration of a good quality of life in the San Fernando Valley, and if they want families, that's a big consideration,'' Buckert said.

San Fernando Valley exiles account for close to 50 percent of the new-home buyers in Valencia, according to Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for The Newhall Land and Farming Company. She said existing residents of the Santa Clarita Valley make up almost an equal amount, with a small percentage of buyers coming from out of state.

Lauffer said a great number of the buyers still commute into Los Angeles for work, but that more are moving here as companies locate here and their workers follow suit.

Knopp fits that bill as well. She works as a studio makeup artist, commuting to Hollywood or Burbank most days, but hopes to land a job at a show that shoots in this valley.

In a similar situation is George Perusset, 32, who works in elevator repair and has been making the commute from his Canyon Country home for eight years.

``I work in downtown. I don't mind the commute. I like the area. It feels safe. I like the schools,'' he said Saturday while looking for a bigger home in the Santa Clarita Valley. ``I like the people I see on the streets. I like the people I see at the mall.''

The average age of the residents of Santa Clarita is 30, according to the city. And that is part of the lure, Knopp said. Her neighbors are close to her age, have similar interests, and are likely to be young parents - making it ideal to get families together for barbecues and the like.

Mike Lebecki, an agent with Re/Max Realtors, said most of the buyers he talks to are coming to Santa Clarita from elsewhere and are attracted by the small-town feel, or what he termed, ``the Mayberry effect.''

``Thousand Oaks and Moorpark really give us a run for our money,'' he said.

Knopp said she also has looked in West Hills, Calabasas and Agoura, but decided the commute would be worse from those areas and that she would lose other amenities.

``I wanted a little bit of scenery,'' she said. ``I want a little bit of atmosphere, even if I work in L.A.''

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Photo: (color) George Perusset, left, and his family look through amodel home.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News