Antonovich, Santa Clarita Making Peace

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and the Santa Clarita City Council met Monday morning to discuss planning and politics and, after a brief discussion, ended the meeting still divided on key issues confronting the city.

There was no debate of controversial issues and no hard feelings were expressed during the informal breakfast meeting held at Santa Clarita City Hall. Antonovich simply repeated his longstanding positions on two subjects that have placed the city and county at odds--school financing and garbage dumps.

City officials used the meeting to exchange information and improve relations between the city and county, said Councilwoman Jan Heidt, who often has been at loggerheads with Antonovich over a variety of planning issues.

Monday’s meeting was relaxed and businesslike, far different from the time Antonovich met Heidt and four other Santa Clarita Valley residents in 1987 shortly after they were elected to the first City Council, she said.

“To me, it was a lot less tense than our first one,” Heidt said. Initially, relations were strained between the supervisors and the fledgling, but aggressive City Council.

The council and supervisor showed Monday that they were willing to work together on some issues, such as providing more roads and hiking trails for the Santa Clarita Valley, she said. That kind of cooperation “never would have been possible before,” she said.

But on two key issues, the county and Santa Clarita remain split.

Mayor Jo Anne Darcy, who is one of Antonovich’s field deputies, said a proposal by Los Angeles city and county to open a garbage dump in Elsmere Canyon, a mile outside Santa Clarita, was a “constant worry for the city.”

Antonovich, who supports the proposed Elsmere landfill, said the project would proceed only if it is environmentally sound. Antonovich also said he opposes plans by county sanitation officials to open a dump in Towsley Canyon, also located just outside the Santa Clarita city limits.

Antonovich and the council continue to disagree over school financing, a particularly volatile issue in the Santa Clarita Valley, where five school districts are struggling to absorb rising enrollments.

The Santa Clarita council, citing a controversial appellate court ruling in a San Diego development case, has said it has the authority to deny housing developments that would tax the resources of valley school systems.

The council has said it would not approve development proposals unless builders receive a go-ahead from local school officials. As a result, developers have tried to woo Santa Clarita Valley school districts with offers of cash and land to win their support.

But Antonovich, citing state law, said counties and cities may not deny development projects because of their potential impact on schools. If the City Council wants to change laws governing school financing, it should work with state legislators to revamp those laws, Antonovich said.

Antonovich and the council agreed to work together on recycling and development of the Santa Clara River, which passes through Santa Clarita, as a recreation area. Antonovich said he would continue to lobby agencies, such as the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, for funds to improve roads and thus relieve traffic congestion in the Santa Clarita Valley.