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After years of fighting against the California high-speed rail
project, the city of Santa Clarita is planning a regional
approach to the battle, hoping to band together with nearby
communities to strengthen a joint cause.

City officials said last week they have joined forces with
Acton, Agua Dulce and the city of San Fernando to forge the
“North L.A. County Communities Protection Coalition” — a
cooperative effort between those who share similar concerns with
the project and wish to make them known to the California High-
Speed Rail Authority.

“They need to listen,” said Santa Clarita Mayor Marsha McLean of
the rail authority. “They need to understand that pitting one
community against another is not going to fly with us.”

Residents in the Santa Clarita Valley and some northern reaches
of the San Fernando Valley have found themselves at odds in
recent months as rail planners examine ways to route the
controversial bullet train from Burbank to Palmdale.

Some routes under consideration would run through the Santa
Clarita Valley, while others would avoid the area but pass
through communities in the northern San Fernando Valley.

Common ground
While residents in both valleys may differ on their preferred
rail routes, they largely share the same concerns: Namely, how
the bullet train could effect the environment, their
neighborhoods and their ways of life.

“We understand what Santa Clarita residents are fighting
against, and we’re fighting against the same things,” said Dave
DePinto, president of the Shadow Hills Property Owners
Association and a representative for a group called Save Angeles
Forest for Everyone, or SAFE.

SAFE is a group formed from residents and leaders in a
collection of San Fernando Valley communities, including Shadow
Hills, Lake View Terrace, Kagel Canyon, La Tuna Canyon,
Sunland/Tujunga and Sun Valley.

A motto of the group is: “Don’t Railroad our Communities.”

Working together
McLean said it’s not the city’s goal, nor the aim of its
recently formed coalition, to merely force the train out of the
Santa Clarita Valley at whatever cost.

“We’re saying make sure it doesn’t impact them, either,” she
said, referring to the communities in the San Fernando Valley.

Both Santa Clarita officials and DePinto said they’ve recently
met and expressed interest in working together on the rail issue.

Chief among their shared goals: Make sure the train is put
underground wherever it runs.

“We would not wish what we’ve gone through on any community,”
DePinto said. “We would not wish these above-ground structures
on any community anywhere.”

Palmdale to Burbank
Officials from the California High-Speed Rail Authority are
continuing to examine ways to run the bullet train from Burbank
to Palmdale.

Two route options plotted out by the High-Speed Rail Authority
would pass through the so-called “SR 14” Corridor that largely
follows the path of Highway 14 through the Santa Clarita Valley.

One alternative calls for running the train in a tunnel
virtually all the way through Santa Clarita. Local residents and
officials say if the train runs through Santa Clarita, it needs
to be put underground.

In the other option, the train would come out of a tunnel in the
Sand Canyon area of Canyon Country.

That, city officials say, would devastate homes, businesses, a
church and two schools in the Sand Canyon area.

East corridor
The City Council’s preference, however, is for the train to
travel an alternative “East Corridor” being looked at by high-
speed rail officials.

That route is a more direct path between Palmdale and Burbank,
but would involve tunneling under the San Gabriel Mountains.

It would also involve passing through some of the communities
that make up SAFE.

DePinto said residents of those communities have concerns
similar to the ones raised in the Santa Clarita Valley,
including whether the project could put homes and businesses at
risk, affect water supplies or increase the risk of seismic
activity.

Perhaps more than anything, DePinto said, there’s the worry that
the project “would change the character of our community.”

Meeting
The city is holding what it describes as an “emergency” meeting
on the high-speed rail project at 7 p.m. Monday in the gym at
Canyon High School.

“This is the chance for our public here in Santa Clarita to
weigh in if they’re opposed to high-speed rail,” said City
Councilman TimBen Boydston.

City officials say they hope residents from surrounding
communities will show up in force, as well.

For more information on the meeting, visit santa-clarita.com/HSR.

Lmoney@signalscv.com
661-287-5525
On Twitter @LukeMMoney

http://www.signalscv.com/section/36/article/135898/

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