Santa Clarita Asked to Save Ecological Areas From Building

Environmentalists Monday called on Santa Clarita to buy ecologically sensitive land to save it from development, and the City Council is expected to take the first steps tonight to do just that.

The Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and Environment urged local, county and state governments to consider buying up large tracts of land that have been classed by Los Angeles County as Significant Ecological Areas, or SEAs, because they contain unique and sensitive wildlife habitat.

The Santa Clarita City Council is expected to approve a three-year action plan tonight, outlining goals ranging from building a city hall to improving local trail systems. The council’s top goal will be preserving open space, and SEAs are an important part of that goal, Councilwoman Jan Heidt said Monday.

Last month, the County Board of Supervisors strengthened its policies protecting SEAs, a commitment cited a few weeks later by county planning commissioners when they ordered Newhall Land & Farming Co. to redesign the Westridge project, a golf course and housing tract planned on a scenic oak savanna a few miles south of Six Flags Magic Mountain.

On Monday, five members of SCOPE and Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Jill Klajic held a brief news conference along Valencia Boulevard overlooking the Westridge site.

Mike Kotch, SCOPE president, conceded that the group does not know who will raise the money for purchasing the SEAs--or how.

“We haven’t talked nickels and dimes at this point,” he said.

Kotch said his group plans to sponsor a conference, perhaps next month, to explore funding options with local, county and state officials.

The group’s goal is to preserve five SEAs in the Santa Clarita Valley that contain oaks, grasslands and habitat for the unarmored three spine stickleback, a small endangered fish.

At Heidt’s urging, the council has agreed to explore the possibility of creating a special administrative body, tentatively called an open lands district, which would collect funds to purchase open land, particularly SEAs.

The city is still studying potential funding sources for land purchases, such as developer fees or an increase in the property tax.

In addition to protecting existing SEAs, perhaps the city can create new SEAs of its own, although it is unclear whether the city has the authority to make such designations, Heidt said.