Self-Contained Town Planned : Lancaster-Area Site to Have Homes Near Places of Work

That’s not a mirage out there near Lancaster on the high desert about 95 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

It’s the shimmering master plan for a self-supporting new town, a community of homes for families of all incomes who want to live close to their work.

Circumstances of Southern California’s population explosion and its economy have made it virtually impossible for city dwellers to live and work in the same area, or to have only a short drive to their place of employment, let alone bicycle or walk to work.

The mirage in the Antelope Valley is expected to evolve into California Springs, with 35,000 homes and 24 million square feet of commercial and industrial space, all expected to cost from $8.5 billion to $9 billion at build-out.

Near Kern County

Covering roughly 15 square miles, its homes, commerce and industry, and possibly a university campus, will utilize the best of planning from such earlier landmark Southland communities as Westlake Village, Valencia, Mission Viejo and Irvine, prize products of the late ‘60s and ‘70s.

The site selected is barren, flat desert, oriented north and south along West 170th St. and Avenue D, about 14 miles west of the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway, 22 miles east of the Golden State (5) Freeway and about 19 miles west of Lancaster. A proposed freeway, Route 48, would be parallel to Avenue D, through the northern part of the property, which approaches the Kern County line.

Two veteran builder/developers, Ray Watt and Richard Barclay, and a comparative newcomer, David G. Waln, Lancaster-based builder, are the principals in the proposed self-contained town. The Watt/Barclay/Waln partnership hopes to break ground in two years and begin moving families into homes by 1992.

Obviously, start of construction of the new town will provide the first jobs as infrastructure is created. Then service and supply--supporting construction and all the needs of an embryo city--will follow, followed by the permanent jobs brought about by commerce and industry.

Seek Out Employers

“We must find ways to get housing and jobs closer together so that workers will not be jamming the freeways, driving between affordable housing in outlying areas and jobs in crowded urban centers,” Watt said. “Freeway traffic congestion today will be gridlock tomorrow unless we begin now to plan for the growth to come.”

“One of the key elements we have identified is employment,” he said. “We are prepared to make ‘sweetheart’ deals with labor-intensive companies willing to locate here during the first phase so that we can create a strong employment base from the beginning.”

California Springs will pay its own way--no county or city investment is expected to fund the local infrastructure. Initial phases of construction will include entry-level housing, a senior citizen community, a large recreational lake, regulation golf course, neighborhood commercial and retail centers and the first phase of an industrial park.

Citing Southern California Assn. of Governments (SCAG) estimates of growth for the Southland by the year 2010, Watt said expectations are that the rapidly expanding Antelope Valley will increase from its current population of 168,000 to 532,000.

‘Self-Sufficient Communities’

SCAG estimates show Southern California’s population of 13 million increasing by 5 million in the ensuing 21 years. Of that number, 37% are expected to settle in Los Angeles County, with the Antelope Valley accounting for 22% of the county’s growth. Significantly, the entire population of Southern California is surpassed only by three states--California, New York and Texas.

“The question is not whether growth will come, but how,” Watt said. “We can either have (more) suburban sprawl and the problems it generates, or we can develop self-sufficient communities like Westlake Village, Valencia, Mission Viejo and Irvine, which provide a balanced mix of housing, employment, recreation and educational opportunities.”

The development team includes SWA Group, nationwide land planners and environmental analysts; Robert Bein, William Frost Associates, civil engineers, and Barton-Aschman Associates Inc., traffic engineers. Jean Marie Gath of the SWA Group will be the lead planner. Richard K. Law, company principal, was lead planner for Woodbridge, the Irvine community that exploded into housing headlines in its June, 1976 debut.

That spring hundreds of would-be buyers camped outside the sales offices, vying for an opportunity to purchase a new home. As a result, a lottery was established in fairness to all prospective buyers.

Draws Comparisons

Watt likes to project the future of California Springs to the present status of Westlake Village, developed by the American-Hawaiian Steamship Co. with Prudential Insurance Co., and Valencia, a Newhall Land and Farming Co. community. The two model communities, like their Orange County counterparts, accent the use of common green-belt systems. Both communities compare closely to what the Watt/Barclay/Waln partnership envisions for its new town. Westlake Village covers 12,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties and is home to about 25,000 residents, and is close to the Ventura Freeway’s Technology Corridor and all its places of employment.

Valencia is a 10,000-acre development, with a population of another 25,000 and jobs for 12,000. Most of its developed area is within the city of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County.

While the new town’s planning area covers 10,000 acres, the community itself will be defined within 7,000 acres, according to present plans. The town site is surrounded by the Fairmont Buttes, the Angeles National Forest, the State of California’s Poppy Preserve and long-range views of the Tehachapi Mountains.

The build-out of California Springs could take 35 years, as planned now and will include a series of neighborhoods of single-family and multifamily homes ranging from entry-level to executive-style dwellings.

Town Center Plan

The town center will include shopping, civic and office facilities, while nearby sectors will be zoned for schools, churches, medical facilities and a university campus as well as 1,100 acres for “clean” business and industrial users, all offering a variety of employment opportunities. Lakes, golf courses and parks will also have their places in the environment.

(Neither California State University nor the University of California has built a campus since 1965, while all projections show definite needs for new campuses and expansion of existing facilities for both systems and community colleges to accommodate an enrollment boom for the next generation of students.)

The master plan for California Springs calls for a land use mix of 55% residential, 18% industrial/office use, 4% commercial, 6% roads and freeways and 17% open space.

Because of the area’s checkered history of “fragmented ownership patterns,” industrial development of the land is severely limited, according to Waln, partner in the venture and president of Waln & Associates Inc.

(The area has a history as a sand haven for land scams and sight-unseen sales of desert sites, including among its buyers many Easterners enticed and attracted by exaggerated advertisements hyping an intercontinental airport at Palmdale. A June 16, 1968 Times story reported that land prices in the Antelope Valley had jumped from $200 an acre in 1960 to $10,000 an acre in 1968.)

Agriculture Moved Out

Waln pointed out that Urban Land Institute standards describe a model business park site as covering at least 300 acres; the valley’s largest existing active park is only 80 acres in size, he noted.

Falling water tables in recent years caused agricultural users to move out of the area, leaving only scattered farming of alfalfa, dry wheat and onions at elevations of from 2,200 to 2,500 feet. The new town expects to get its water supply from the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, regional water wholesaler for the California State Water Project’s California Aqueduct. The area is home to boars, fox, deer, quail, coyote and mountain lions, Waln said.

Each with ample staying power, Watt Industries and Richard Barclay Associates have been two of California’s principal realty development firms.

Watt has built more than 100,000 homes and 8 million square feet of industrial and professional office space throughout the Southland. His efforts include Watt Plaza in Century City, a number of housing communities, the Fairbanks Ranch in San Diego County, three first-class hotels and 50 shopping centers.

Other Developments

Barclay played major roles in the development of Marina del Rey, Santa Monica Business Park, California Oaks at Rancho California, MountainGate in Brentwood, the Village of Heritage in Fontana and is a partner with Watt in the Bear Creek development in Riverside County. He owns and operates Quail Ranch Golf Club in Moreno Valley.

The SWA planning book sets this goal as it looks ahead to creating a new town from the mirage on the desert:

“California Springs--through careful land planning, combined with civil engineering, transportation planning and environmental sensitivity--will represent the next step forward in planned communities.

“It will be a total new community where residents can live, work and play, and where the transportation and infrastructure demands are planned in advance, alleviating future problems that often occur when growth has not been properly anticipated.

“Unlike the San Fernando Valley, California Springs and the Antelope Valley have the opportunity to accommodate growth in a planned and orderly fashion.”