Agua Dulce Fights to Retain Its Rural Flavor

It is 5 p.m.--rush hour for most of Southern California, but a magical time in the isolated foothill hamlet of Agua Dulce.

Here, the hush that falls with dusk is marked only by the hooting of an owl and the whinny of horses in their stables. The sole movement is the prowling of a scraggly cat under a sky luminous with stars.

Townspeople like to say that, when you strike a match in the crisp night air, it appears like a torch against the backdrop of the village, where there are only four street lights and no traffic signals.

But the outward peacefulness of Agua Dulce belies the turmoil here: Encroaching development has flung the town’s more than 2,000 residents into an often bitter battle against the outside world.

Fast Growth

Unprecedented growth has reached nearby New-hall, Valencia, Saugus and Canyon Country, making the Santa Clarita Valley the fastest-growing region in Los Angeles County. The area experienced a population increase of nearly 16% from 1980 to 1984, contrasted with a 3% increase for the San Fernando Valley, said George Marr, a county population researcher.

Now, as the growth creeps northeastward along the Antelope Valley Freeway toward Agua Dulce, residents of the unincorporated area are fighting back with a vengeance.

In recent months, they have:

Thwarted the continuing attempts of Charles Pratty, a major absentee landowner, to build 800 Spanish-style villas and tract homes in a 900-acre sagebrush-covered area near the town’s tiny airstrip. The county Regional Planning Commission has rejected the plan, but a spokesman for Pratty said his investment group will continue to pursue the project.

Delayed the Los Angeles County Aviation Division’s effort to develop a 300-plane regional airport at the local airstrip. Residents have received the powerful backing of County Supervisor Mike Antonovich. A public hearing on the matter is scheduled for February.

Launched plans to establish a defense fund in order to file suit if the state Department of Corrections selects Agua Dulce as the site for a 1,700-bed, medium-security prison. Agua Dulce has been proposed by state officials as a prison site more than once, and Pratty has offered to sell his land for the facility.

Turned back county proposals to install a municipal water system, preferring to rely on private wells that discourage development. County officials say the county can no longer afford the multimillion-dollar system and has dropped the plan.

Hammered out, at dozens of civic meetings over a 10-year period, details of a “community standards district” that would strictly preserve the town’s rural character. The proposal was approved Wednesday by the Regional Planning Commission after receiving support from key county officials.

Perhaps the most important of the town’s tactics against development, the zoning district is the first of its kind in rural Los Angeles County. The only other district tailor-made to the desires of an unincorporated area is in West Hollywood, where building height limits were adopted before it became a city, said David Vannatta, a county regional planner.

The Agua Dulce district would prohibit construction of homes on less than two acres, would require new commercial buildings to use turn-of-the-century architecture, would limit development of the airstrip and would restrict road widths to 24 feet, with soft shoulders for horseback riding.

“We are certain of what we want and we’re mighty proud of it,” said Jack Wyle, a longtime resident.

“We don’t mind a little growth but we don’t like the domino effect we see gulping up the county,” he said. “If you live in Agua Dulce, whether you’re a developer like me, a commuter to the Valley, poor or rich, you know this is the good life.”

Vannatta said the town is setting a precedent in rural Los Angeles County that will be closely watched by other undeveloped communities where anti-growth movements are stirring. Vannatta said several Antelope Valley communities, including Pearblossom and Palmdale, are considering reductions in housing density.

“Since 1977, when I came to regional planning, the whole attitude has changed from pro-growth to pro-rural,” Vannatta said.

“Every community I can think of in the rural areas is proposing reductions in the very densities that they had just proposed a few years earlier. The word they use is escape. People want to escape.”

Agua Dulce is at the forefront of the anti-growth wave because its residents know how to get results, Vannatta and other county officials said.

Residents have learned how to reach state senators and county supervisors on short notice, analyze environmental impact reports and rustle up a crowd of 400 to show they mean business at public hearings.

At the home of Rick and Lori Curtis, family time is squeezed between her duties on the town’s airport committee and his involvement as chairman of the local prison committee.

“I go to one meeting; Rick goes to the other; then we trade information,” she said. “Sometimes it seems like we just pass each other in the hall.”

The town’s spirit has earned it respect among county officials and even the developers who would like to build there.

“They are fighters, God love them,” said Joanne Darcy, Antonovich’s aide in the Santa Clarita Valley.

“They are committed and involved--old-fashioned Americans . . . who believe in home and family. I’ve found them to be great people.”

Even Dennis Donohue, an engineer and spokesman for Pratty, credits the residents for their tenacity.

“You have to admire them for being very much aware of everything that’s going on . . . and working out their plan with the Regional Planning Commission,” he said. “They operate the way you think a real community should operate.”

But residents say the proposals of Pratty, county aviation officials and other outside groups threaten to destroy those heartland qualities.

Small-Town Flavor

Where else, they ask, could you find public restrooms marked “Hens” and “Roosters,” teen-agers who don’t mind acknowledging that “it’s pretty cool” to join the 4-H Club to raise farm animals, and homeowners who haul their own garbage rather than allow a paved road for garbage trucks?

“We don’t worry much about what’s fashionable,” said real estate agent Linda Kirk, who pulled on a pair of cowboy boots and showed a visitor around her custom-built country home overlooking the town. “The rest of the world might keep to itself, but in Agua Dulce we’re our brother’s keepers.”

Nowhere is that more evident than at Agua Dulce’s cozy gathering spot, the Sweetwater Cafe.

The Sweetwater’s waitress and cook are also the owners, and customers greet each other by first names. Everybody knows when a stranger comes in.

‘Condos and Traffic Jams’

“I remember when Valencia was pitch-black at night, just a few homes here and there,” said Diane Sorensen, the waitress-owner. “Now it’s condos and traffic jams. Ask around and you’ll find that we don’t want that for Agua Dulce.”

Big Al, a self-described “local character” who supports himself by selling firewood, drew a hot cup of coffee to his lips and chuckled over what he called “the grand plans.”

“We don’t mind if they build on two or three acres--nobody minds that--but not no side-by-side houses, uh-uh,” said Big Al, who lives in a small cabin and cooks on a wood stove.

“I don’t want the garbage coming up here, the flatlanders,” he said. “We don’t need ‘em.”

Mary Wyle, a town member of the task force that created the community standards district, said many residents moved up from the San Fernando Valley and other suburban areas to escape the housing-tract life.

Life Style Important

“Jack and I came up from Sylmar ourselves 20 years ago,” said Wyle, who owns a real estate office two doors from the Sweetwater.

“We wanted horses and a place to raise our kids, and now we know this life style was worth fighting for. It means an awful lot to us.”

Nancy Young moved from North Hollywood four years ago because it was “too suburban.” Now, she said, she only goes to the city for an occasional arts event.

“A teen-age neighbor of mine told me she’s so lucky to live here, because she only has to go to the San Fernando Valley for Christmas shopping,” Young said.

Renee Gandy, who left Saugus 12 years ago, agreed. “You just don’t miss that life,” she said. “My husband works way down in Van Nuys and it’s more than worth the drive to him to come back to this peacefulness every night.”

Growth Elsewhere

Even the growing but still small communities of Newhall and Valencia, with a combined population of about 30,800, and Canyon Country, with a population of about 7,700, represent unbridled development to them.

Agua Dulce residents point out that Canyon Country, the nearest community to Agua Dulce, welcomed developers a few years ago.

Today, they say, it is clogged with trailer parks, cracker-box condominiums, realty offices and a miniature rush hour that causes a 20-minute backup on the main drag.

But a mile or two northeast of Canyon Country, along the quiet two-lane Sierra Highway, the countryside changes from newly suburban to old-time rural.

The road passes small farms with names like Iron Horse Ranch and passes signs advertising tractor repairs and horseshoeing.

Melange of Buildings

The highway dips between foothills dotted with native oak and opens unexpectedly onto a vista of Agua Dulce, encircled by the deep blue mountains of the Angeles National Forest.

It’s just a whisper of a town--a main road, a church and a melange of buildings ranging from wooden shacks to a country mansion with a weather vane.

The nearest bar is five miles away, and grocery stores and gas stations are almost 10 miles to the north or south in Acton or Canyon Country.

Residents rely on private ground-water wells that cost an average of $15,000 to install, or they pay to have water trucked in. During winter the picturesque dirt lanes that lead to many homes turn into impassable mud swamps.

“We’re happy to make the sacrifices to live here because we know the inconveniences keep the hordes out,” said Young. “The well on my property is dry, so we buy water, and when you run out, you run out. I’ve been all sudsed up in the shower and, oops, no water. That’s life.”

Progress Called Inevitable

But those who would like to develop parts of Agua Dulce say residents can’t keep out progress forever.

“They can’t put a fence around it and let nobody else in,” said Donohue, Pratty’s spokesman.

“The question is not whether people will move there, but how will people be let in. We think our approach is better.”

Donohue said Pratty’s investment group and other absentee landlords made a mistake in the early going by failing to attend community meetings and present development ideas to the town.

Pratty’s partnership wants to decrease the minimum lot size from two acres--as stipulated under the newly approved community standards district--to one acre.

“We’re trying to bring it to everyone’s attention that we didn’t participate and that was our oversight, but it doesn’t mean things can’t be changed,” Donohue said.

Last fall, Pratty informally surveyed major Agua Dulce landowners, asking whether they supported the community’s proposed two-acre minimum or a less restrictive one-acre minimum, Donohue said.

Pratty said his survey showed that the vast majority of large landowners wanted a one-acre minimum. But a communitywide survey released Wednesday by the county Department of Regional Planning showed that 55% of the absentee landowners support the two-acre density, while only 45% want one acre.

Donohue argued, however, that the two-acre minimum will lead to grading of hillsides and a “checkerboard effect” on untouched land.

“When you build on a hillside you have to cut into it and build a pad for the house,” Donohue said. “We’d rather cluster the homes close together in the flat areas and leave the hills untouched. That’s what the one-acre minimum would allow us to do. But we can’t seem to get people to understand that.”

But Darcy, Antonovich’s aide, said Pratty, Donohue and others “vastly underestimated Agua Dulce’s people, and they continue to do so.”

One reason the town has fought the one-acre density is that smaller lots do not provide enough ground area for septic tanks, while two-acre lots do, she said. A municipal sewer system would be needed if homes were built on one-acre lots and many residents believe the construction of such a system would be the catalyst for widespread development, she said.

Pratty could build nearly 400 homes if he used two-acre lots, “but he wanted 800 homes,” said Rick Curtis. “He wants density, water, sewers and he’s not going to get it.”

That same fighting attitude has shored up the community in its battle against airport expansion.

The Board of Supervisors, led by Antonovich, originally proposed buying the airstrip and operating it without altering its small-town character.

However, Jack Tippie, chief of the county’s Aviation Division, and members of the county Airport Commission are pushing hard for expansion of the 50-plane airstrip to a 300-plane airport with commercial support services.

Residents insist that increased flights, noise, congestion and the installation of night-landing lights would ruin the community.

Besides, because the purchase by the county would use some federal funds, Federal Aviation Administration rules would be applied. Under FAA regulations, night flying, jet takeoffs and landings and a longer runway would be required, and all are opposed by the community.

Although stopping short of abandoning the airport purchase plan, the Board of Supervisors in November ordered Tippie to work out a compromise satisfactory to the community.

When Tippie and other county airport officials met with residents in mid-January, the officials defended their proposal, deepening the impasse between the two groups.

“Not once out of all the airport commission meetings have they given us a single compromise, and nothing has changed now,” said Linda Kirk, civic improvement chairwoman of the Agua Dulce Civic Assn.

“Frankly, we feel we’re being railroaded,” she said. “This stinks.”

Tippie told the group that airport officials intend to pursue most aspects of their proposal.

Tippie said he hopes a compromise can be reached at a public hearing scheduled for February. But residents assert that his group is trying to buy more time.

“It’s just beating a dead horse to meet over this again,” said Nolan Henderson, an attorney and acting chairman of the civic association’s airport committee. “The community doesn’t want a bigger airport, period.”

Darcy said airport officials will find themselves in a battle with Antonovich if they don’t begin making concessions to the community soon.

“Frankly, at this point I have to ask why they don’t take their marbles and play somewhere else,” Darcy said.

“The supervisor is not going to change his mind on this issue.”

Key county officials have backed the citizens on two major issues--limiting airport expansion and the creation of a community standards district.

But the outside threat that alarms residents more than any other is in the hands of the state.

The Department of Corrections has drawn up a list of potential sites for a state prison, naming Pratty’s land in Agua Dulce and the 39-acre Ameron pipe factory in South Gate, although Ameron’s owners say it is not for sale. Another site, the old Bethlehem Steel plant in Vernon, was removed from the list recently because the land is being sold for an industrial plaza. A third site is expected to be chosen in the Lancaster area, a state official said.

“This prison thing has got us scared to death,” said Rick Curtis, because most of the urban sites have been dropped from an original list of 10.

“If the Ameron site falls out of favor, we’re a prime site, I’m afraid,” Curtis said.

State Department of Corrections spokesman Tom Crofoot said he met with Pratty to discuss a price for his land several times. An independent assessor valued the land at slightly more than $3 million but Pratty “was asking for several times more than that,” Crofoot said.

Despite disagreements over the price, Crofoot said, the site has remained on the list “because the owner indicated the price issue was not dead.”

Rick Curtis, Young and several other residents called Pratty’s negotiations with the state an attempt to “blackmail” residents into accepting his controversial housing development.

“He’s basically saying, ‘If I can’t have my Prattyville, you’re going to get a prison instead,’ ” Young said. “What nonsense.”

Pratty refused, through his spokesman, Donohue, to comment on that or any other issue facing Agua Dulce.

Darcy acknowledged that county officials have little voice about whether Agua Dulce becomes a prison town. Many residents have expressed fear that the state is going to “dump it in the desert,” despite official state pronouncements that the prison should be built in an urban area, she said.

An environmental impact report, expected to take more than a year to complete, will recommend the final location.

However, she predicted, “The state will go to the place of least resistance on their list, and they are going to get plenty of resistance from Agua Dulce.

“Why they are looking at Agua Dulce, with no infrastructure, no water system, no sewers, tiny roads, I don’t know. The area can’t possibly support a prison.”

While the selection process continues, the local prison committee is planning fund-raising events for a $50,000 war chest in order to sue the state if Agua Dulce is chosen.

Meanwhile, residents cast a wary eye to the southwest, where a growing stream of commuter traffic turns off Interstate 5 and marches up the Antelope Valley Freeway.

“I don’t think you can stop progress,” said Bud Smith, a resident of Agua Dulce for 40 years.

“But when outsiders see our pretty little piece of earth, I’d like to think that maybe they won’t mind making a detour. Anyway, I sure do hope so.”