The Road Less Traveled : Homeowners Limit Access to Private Stretch of Thoroughfare

SANTA CLARITA â€”  Placerita Canyon Road has evolved over the decades from a quiet service road to an east-west thoroughfare for thousands of drivers. But many residents who live along the route yearn for the old days.

And they have the means to turn back time.

A two-mile section of the road, situated between San Fernando Road and Sierra Highway, is privately owned and maintained by the approximately 75 residents who live along it. They have voted to grant access through that section only to people who live in Placerita Canyon.

On Wednesday, a concrete barrier will be installed across the road at the western edge of the private section, blocking all access, according to Ben Curtis, president of the Placerita Canyon Property Owners’ Assn.

Even residents will be forced to enter only from the east end. But the barrier is temporary.

“That will last for approximately a week,� Curtis said Sunday. “Then there will be some kind of manned gate that will allow access.�

Placerita Canyon residents will be given temporary identification cards to allow them access, Curtis said. All other motorists will be turned around.

Eventually, a permanent, card-controlled gate will be installed. To pay for the gate and its upkeep, canyon residents will be charged an as-yet-undetermined fee for the cards. Even those who are technically co-owners of the road will have to pay.

The closure of the road will make it more difficult for many motorists to reach several local businesses, churches and The Master’s College, an 850-student school.

The move by residents to block access comes in the wake of a court decision earlier this month in Superior Court in Van Nuys that confirmed the private ownership of the road.

Resident Stephen Schafhausen said he and his neighbors took the action not only because of the noise and dangers caused by traffic, but also because of possible liability for accidents.

“Every one of those property owners could be sued for millions,� said Schafhausen, adding that he believes that about 90% of the 9,000 motorists who use the road daily are outsiders.

City officials said they have no figures but believe the number of outsiders using the road to be somewhat lower.

The road’s closure will force non-residents to make at least a three-mile detour.

“I’m very upset about it,� said Terri McCarty, 28, a Canyon Country resident who uses the road to get to her son’s preschool in Valencia. She also attends one of several churches located in Placerita Canyon. “This (road) makes the trip much quicker,� she said.

“It’s a terrible blow to us,� said Renaud Veluzat, owner of the Melody Ranch movie studio. “It’s going to cut off our access to the freeway, and that’s where everybody is coming in.�

But several students at the college who have to walk across the road said they welcomed the easing of traffic.

“This crossing’s difficult, especially at night,� said Heather Brooks, a 19-year-old sophomore. “That’s a crosswalk and people are supposed to stop, but a lot of times they don’t want to stop.�

Placerita Canyon Road was a dirt service road for a small oil company in the 1930s. As houses were built, the land parceled out to newcomers included parts of the road.

Use of the road increased as the suburban community developed, but did not become problematic until the mid-1980s, when people started using it as a freeway-access road, said Arnold Graham, a Glendale attorney representing the Placerita homeowners putting in the gate.

The county maintained the road until the city incorporated in 1987. The city then continued to make improvements through a contract with the county.

But in 1992, after a motorcyclist injured in an accident on the road sued the city, municipal officials stopped maintaining the road, fearing that even filling a pothole could make them liable in accident cases.

City Engineer Tony Nisich said the only recent repairs by authorities were made after the Northridge earthquake, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided about $50,000 because of increased public use of the road.

Santa Clarita Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said she doesn’t object to keeping commuters off the road, but she said she is concerned the gate could keep residents from getting out quickly in an emergency such as a brush fire.

“What do you do in a real emergency--blow up the gate or knock it down?� she asked. “While you’re doing that, people could die.�

Fire and police officials will have access through the gate, Schafhausen said. He said a specific design for the gate hasn’t been set yet, but precautions for emergencies will be taken.

An uproar over another security gate occurred in the city in 1992, when a device that rammed steel cylinders into cars trying to pass without authorization was installed in the Hidden Valley housing tract.

Several cars were damaged and at least one person--an ice cream truck driver who couldn’t read the English warning--was critically injured.

Schafhausen said Placerita homeowners have “certainly explored the possibility� of putting in the same kind of gate, but other designs are also being considered.

Some expressed concern that the gate will increase traffic and homeowners’ liability because motorists will have to double back when blocked by the gate. But Schafhausen said that is likely to be a short-term problem.

“We anticipate that lasting for maybe a month until people know what has happened,� he said. “The only people who should be coming in after that is people who have business here.�