THANK YOU!!

Thank you to all the Canyon Residents that attended the Planning Commission hearing on Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

Your testimony and show of support was instrumental in helping to show the Planning Commission that Placerita Canyon is important not only to us, the residents, but to the rest of the community.

Please stay involved, stay informed and we can make a difference.

At-Grade Rail Crossing

(First Step to Casden’s High Density Condos)

If the Lyons Avenue crossing is approved by the PUC, then the door is opened up for future development, such as development of the “Casden” property as well as transit oriented and other housing closer to the train station.  If this change in the crossing is approved it will be the first step in the City’s plan to convert over 200 acres of Placerita Canyon into much higher density than our current 2.2 units per acre, threatening our rural equestrian lifestyle.  Make no mistake, if this proposal is approved by the CPUC, life in Placerita Canyon will be changed for ever.

Your PCPOA Board has been studying this 339 Page DEIR and has hired professional consultants to assist in expressing our concerns to the City and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).  The CPUC has the ultimate decision making authority on the change in the rail crossings and this DEIR is supposed to provide them with the information they need to make such a decision.

PCPOA will continue to do what it can to protect your lifestyle in the canyon and to protect our property values.  It is important that you and your neighbors attend this planning meeting.  Following are some points for you to consider in formulating your testimony:

Placerita Canyon Special Standards District

There is just a passing reference to the Placerita Special Standards District and it is important that ANY development take into consideration that document. It is the Special Standards District that protects us from the installation of Curb and Gutters, Street lights, just to name some “improvements’. It is also a document that spells out the fact that Placerita Canyon is a “Rural Equestrian Community” and all planning should identify that and try to protect that lifestyle. Without the Special Standards District Placerita Canyon would soon look like Valencia. In addition the City and developers would not have any requirements that would restrict their development within the canyon.

If the Lyons Avenue crossing is approved by the PUC, then the door is opened up for future development, such as development of the “Casden” property as well as transit oriented and other housing closer to the train station. If this change in the crossing is approved it will be the first step in the City’s plan to convert over 200 acres of Placerita Canyon into much higher density than our current 2.2 units per acre, threatening our rural equestrian lifestyle. Make no mistake, if this proposal is approved by the CPUC, life in Placerita Canyon will be changed for ever.

• Traffic will increase significantly with the at-grade rail crossing. Ultimately, the proposal is to increase Placerita Canyon residences by 200%. The plan is to close our 13th Street crossing and take all the traffic up to Dockweiler and across to Lyons Avenue. No consideration is given to longer and more frequent trains and their affect on the crossing. This ‘new’ crossing would be closed each time a train is in the station. City staff says this is not an issue ?????
• That much additional traffic is incompatible with our way of life that includes horses, horse trailers, and golf carts as well as trucks.
• There are environmental threats: more traffic means more pollution – a threat to humans, animals, and the oak trees.
• Many of our concerns such as design of a “round-about traffic circle”, design & implementation of Dockweiler, what future development will occur (i.e. “Casden”), are deferred to Stage II. However all this will have a huge impact on the usage of a crossing at Lyons as well as how it would affect the current residents. How can a proper decision on this new crossing be made without all the information?
• If the Lyons Avenue crossing is approved by the PUC, then the door is opened up for future development, such as development of the “Casden” property as well as transit oriented and other housing closer to the train station.
• The proposed 800 or more condominiums threaten our safety and are incompatible with Placerita Canyon’s rural equestrian lifestyle.
• That much additional traffic is incompatible with our way of life that includes horses, horse trailers, and golf carts as well as trucks.
• There are environmental threats: more traffic means more pollution – a threat to humans, animals, and the oak trees.
• There are concerns about adding to an already severe flood threat. Much of the run-off in Placerita Canyon drains to the field where Casden plans his condos. Without that field to absorb the run-off many of our properties will be flooded.
• Nearly all of the issues that will most negatively impact the canyon are either reported to be “Insignificant” or will be studied in a subsequent Stage II EIR.
• You can not study the traffic flow unless you consider the volumes proposed in any future development.
• There is no discussion about the connection to Dockweiler or to Via Princessa, nor is there any discussion about building a different roadway through Placerita Canyon that would more easily connect with SR 14 and Sierra Highway. In other words, according to this EIR, the traffic will stop at just the other side of the tracks??? That is simply ridiculous.
• Any proposed use or “taking” of Placerita Canyon Road or Placeritos Blvd. has been relegated to the Stage II EIR. Too late for us at that point. Their comment is that it would be “nice if Placerita Canyon Road can be bypassed”. No guarantees that they won’t destroy our canyon with a thoroughfare.
• Flood control issues are not addressed, but since the Lyon’s Avenue crossing is right on the Newhall Creek, how can you ignore the affect a change would have on the flood flows. Again, they stop the boundary of the EIR just short of the creek so as not to be required to study that issue. • How do you accommodate the Grade differences between the railroad and Lyon’s avenue? (Not Discussed).
• Why hasn’t the City considered an extension of Dockweiler to Market Street instead of the nearly impossible grade that would be required to connect Dockweiller to Lyon’s?
• Why are the land use projections for the immediate area around Lyons and Casden property not addressed nor taken into consideration in the traffic projections?
• Traffic volumes used seem to be suspect at best. How do you consider a 24-hour average traffic count and ignore peak period flows like morning and afternoon rush hours? In addition peak commuter vehicle traffic will coincide with peak Metrolink traffic adding to the rush hour mess.
• Residents with trailers and other oversize vehicles will not be able to get around a traffic circle. This issue has been deferred to the Stage II EIR although it is critical for the design of the proposed crossing.
• No discussion of emergency events such as a fire or flood in the Canyon.
• What is planed for construction traffic? (Not Discussed).
• There is no discussion of the problems surrounding the impacts on Dockweiler Road and Deputy Jake. No discussion of issues surrounding the building of the Master’s College Master Plan and how that might affect this proposal.
• Also, conveniently left out of the analysis is the expansion of both OLPH on Lyon’s Avenue, Placerita Baptist Church in Placerita Canyon and the completion of Gates-King Industrial Park on Newhall Avenue.
• They are considering an intersection similar in design to Bouquet Junction with three turn lanes…. Where is all the traffic coming from and, most importantly, where is it going to go once it crosses the tracks?

The complete DEIR can be found here:
www.santa-clarita.com/cityhall/cd/planning/lyons-ave/index.asp

A guide to some of the more pertinent sections of the DEIR can be found here

City of Santa Clarita and the County Of Los Angeles
ONE VALLEY - ONE VISION
General Plan Revision - 2008

The PCPOA has tried to stay informed about this planning issue, and offers the following links to very important information about the process. If you own land in the Santa Clarita Valley Area, YOU WILL BE AFFECTED IN A BIG WAY.

Follow this link to the One Valley One Vision website that has been set up by Los Angeles county Planning. This is a great place to download, and study the maps that the City does not have available to us.

http://regionalgis.co.la.ca.us/ovov/