Industrial development isn’t an afterthought in Santa Clarita.

The city is home to Valencia Gateway, the largest master-planned business park in L.A. County, with eight separate office/industrial parks spread over 4,700 acres. Some 1,400 tenants employing 41,000 workers occupy 22.5 million square feet of space.

Valencia Gateway doesn’t even encompass all the industrial or commercial parks in the north county city. Chalk it all up to two things: good planning and a business-friendly environment.

The master-planned community was founded in 1965 by the Newhall Land & Farming Co. Key to the vision of the company was an idea to integrate commercial, residential and retail clusters.

But long-term plans only go so far; they ultimately depend on others to carry them out. That’s where Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Pulskamp comes in.

Pulskamp believes what’s good for business is good for Santa Clarita. That approach has resulted in a city that has no special business taxes, and provides a fast approval process for commercial land development.

“Before this, I worked at cities that always were at odds with business and it baffled me,” said Pulskamp, who went to work at Santa Clarita shortly after it incorporated in 1987.

Santa Clarita employs an integrated strategy in which residential development has been closely matched with commercial and industrial development. Pulskamp noted that for every house approved, the city wants to see at least two jobs created.

Santa Clarita has focused in particular on the auto aftermarket, biomedical and entertainment sectors. Six months ago, movie star Jackie Chan established a company in Santa Clarita to work on U.S.-Chinese film productions.

Despite its success, Santa Clarita faces challenges. More than half its workforce commutes from the San Fernando Valley. And the region hasn’t escaped the real estate recession.

“There’s a lull in commercial construction, but not in people trying to get projects through the process,” Pulskamp said. “They want to get positioned so when the economy gets into the next upswing, they will be ready to pull the trigger.”

BEST CITY

Santa Clarita

Inventory: 40 million square feet of industrial and office space on 8,174 acres

Notable Projects: Valencia Industrial Center, Valencia Commerce Center, Rye Canyon

Business Park

Key Fact: City master-planned in the 1960s to incorporate industrial parks into its development