JENNIFER NETHERBY
Staff Reporter
A group of residents in Stevenson Ranch, a 2,400-home subdivision near Valencia, wants to be annexed to the city of Santa Clarita because the city offers more control over local planning issues and better services.
There’s just one problem: the annexation would include one of L.A. County’s largest sales-tax generators, the Valencia Marketplace commercial strip. That means the loss of more than $1 million a year.
It also means the likelihood of stricter planning controls that might limit expansion and potentially force retailers to adhere to Santa Clarita’s tough sign ordinance.
The battle likely to play out over the next few months between the county and this community of 6,000 reflects the increasing importance of retail activity on a region’s bottom line.
“Like every other agency, the county depends significantly on the amount of revenue from sales tax,” said Dave Vannetta, chief planner for Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area. “(The Marketplace) has Wal-Mart, Sport Chalet, and other big-box stores. It’s a major sales-tax generator.”
Up until the late ’80s, Stevenson Ranch was just a freeway stop for gas and fast food. That changed when Dale Poe Development Corp. began construction on a master-planned community of between 5,000 and 10,000 homes. Today, an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 people live in the three miles that surround Stevenson Ranch and more houses are being built every day.
The community’s main retail drag runs along Old Road, a mile-long strip with big-box discount chains wedged between Interstate 5 and a backdrop of houses on the west. Lured by the promise of more residents in the coming years and traffic from national chains already in the area, retailers have flocked to Old Road.
By state law, decisions on annexation are weighted in favor of those who own property with the highest assessed values in the area to be annexed. That would no doubt include Arcadia businessman Samuel Mevorach, who bought the Marketplace from Newhall Land & Farming Co. last year for $111 million and who is expected to use his considerable clout to beat back the annexation effort.
But by banding together, homeowners in the 4,000-acre Stevenson Ranch subdivision could use the total assessed value of their own properties estimated at $500 million to override the influence of the Marketplace, according to Keith Pritsker, president of the Stevenson Ranch Town Council, an advisory board to Antonovich.
In the coming months, members of the council are expected to work with the city of Santa Clarita to decide the boundaries of the area proposed for annexation. The residents would then have to obtain signatures from 5 percent of the impacted property holders for the issue to go to a vote.
Pritsker said residents want to see as much of the Stevenson Ranch area as possible annexed to the city, believing it will give them more local control over development. The Marketplace would have to be included in the annexation, he said, because Santa Clarita couldn’t be expected to take on the burden of providing services to Stevenson Ranch unless it received the added tax revenue.
In addition to the Marketplace, residents would like to annex hotels and fast-food restaurants on Pico Canyon Road, as well as a subdivision being developed on 1,800 acres by Lennar Homes, the chief developer of Stevenson Ranch.
Lennar Marketing Manager Caryn Spencer said the development firm has not taken a position on annexation.
Mevorach did not return phone calls. But Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for Newhall Land, said the owner agrees with Newhall Land that annexation should not be supported unless the county favors the move. (Newhall Land manages the Marketplace for Mevorach.)
“Our understanding is, the county’s not interested,” Lauffer said. “If the county said it makes sense, we’d be willing to discuss it.”
The state Board of Equalization would not release specific tax figures for the mall, saying that the information is proprietary. But when Newhall Land went to the county in 1994 for approval of the project, it was estimated that the mall would generate more than $1 million annually in sales taxes. That didn’t include sales-tax revenue from nearby hotels, fast food restaurants, Stevenson Ranch Plaza and other businesses in the area.
Vanneta said Antonovich is not opposed to annexation but believes residents should make sure Santa Clarita is prepared to deliver the services they expect.
Pritsker said many Stevenson Ranch residents believe they would receive improved services through annexation to Santa Clarita, where the government is smaller and more likely to listen to the concerns of homeowners.
“Antonovich’s district stretches all the way to Diamond Bar,” Pritsker said. “He could probably get elected even if we (Stevenson Ranch) didn’t vote for him.”
If an annexation petition is approved, it would mark the first expansion of Santa Clarita west of Interstate 5. City officials have previously asked to include the Stevenson Ranch and Magic Mountain areas in its sphere of influence as a way to give Santa Clarita a greater say in development there. The city was turned down twice.
