Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Barricade Finally Goes Up, Forcing Commuter Detours : Closure: Well-traveled stretch of Placerita Canyon Road is closed to all but area residents, college students and workers.

NEWHALL —  The sound of squealing tires making U-turns filled the morning air Wednesday on quaint Placerita Canyon Road after residents along a privately owned stretch of the two-lane thoroughfare erected a long-awaited barricade to keep out commuters.

About 75 homeowners between San Fernando Road and Sierra Highway advocated the use of the barrier, saying they are tired of speeding motorists, the cost of road repairs and fear potential liability if an accident occurs.

“We’ve been waiting three years for this,” said Chris Townsley, a Placerita resident who showed up at 5 a.m. to videotape a private company putting up a row of metal roadblocks. “It couldn’t have come soon enough for me.”

But for commuters, the barricade will close off one of the city’s few east-west thoroughfares--no small inconvenience in a burgeoning community increasingly plagued by traffic jams.

Erected about a quarter of a mile west of Sierra Highway, it limits access to Placerita Canyon from San Fernando Road only. Placerita Canyon Road east of Sierra Highway, which provides access to Placerita Canyon Nature Center, will not be affected.

Security guards were placed near each end of the private stretch of road Wednesday morning, turning around a steady flow of incoming traffic. Many motorists left with little fuss, but some were incensed.

Brian Roney, 35, asked a guard who turned him away at Sierra Highway to convey his irritation to his employer.

Roney said the barricade means he will have to take a three-mile surface street detour to drop off his daughter at day care, adding to an already long commute from his Canyon Country home to Pyramid Lake, where he is lake manager.

Roney added that he would have favored a local sales tax or other means of raising enough money for Santa Clarita to buy the road.

The barricade is a temporary substitute for a secured gate, to be installed in about a week, that will allow entry only to residents, local college students and employees of the canyon.

Placerita Canyon Road was a dirt service road to an oil company in the 1930s, but evolved into a paved, freeway-access road or shortcut across town for many, especially as Newhall grew. Some residents in the canyon claim as much as 90% of the 9,000 cars traveling the road each day are driven by outsiders.

First the county maintained the road, and then the city of Santa Clarita after it incorporated in 1987. But it was only after a motorcyclist had an accident on the road and sued the city in 1992 that officials realized the winding, oak-lined thoroughfare was actually owned by homeowners along its route.

After a lengthy legal battle, a group of Placerita property owners won the right to completely privatize the road, close it off to the public, and reduce its speed limit from 40 m.p.h. to 25 m.p.h. The city, county and state formally conceded that they did not want to purchase or maintain the road, which Santa Clarita had declared substandard and in need of $500,000 to $1 million in repairs.

Under the new plan, to be administered by an incorporated group of homeowners, electronic access cards will be sold to residents for a yearly user’s fee of up to $100, with the proceeds going toward road maintenance.

But not everyone in the canyon is welcoming the new exclusivity.

“They’re going to make me pay $100 to get to my own home,” said Kim Russo, 32, who estimates her own commute will increase by 15 minutes. “And they’re going to have my name and address posted there at the gate for the guards to see. I consider that an invasion of privacy.”

At least one motorist made it past the barricade Wednesday--a man who told guards he was a physician responding to an emergency call at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia. To so do, he moved several 45-pound roadblocks out of the way.

That incident, along with the continuing stream of motorists who refused to turn around where the guards were posted, prompted the security company to dispatch several uniformed guards to the barricade. Dennis Farnham, owner of Farnham Security, said the barriers would be moved for emergency vehicles such as police cars or firetrucks.

Security guards will be in the canyon 24 hours a day, but several people said they expect more motorists to try to remove the barriers or cause other trouble until the gate is installed next week.

“There’s going to be some vandalism, I guarantee it,” said Bob Ennis, an administrator at AES Placerita Inc., a power plant in the canyon.