Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Happenings: Golden Valley Ranch Partnership Means 900 Acres of Open Space

NOTE: As the ever-vigilant G. Ortiz noted in the comments, the event was at 11am today, not noon. If, by some small chance, you attended at noon based on the information presented here, I offer you an apologetic air-hug.

It’s late notice, but there’s something exciting going on tomorrow. The City has partnered with Pardee Homes and PacSun LLC to set aside some 900 acres (~1.4 square miles) of open space. The so-called Golden Valley Ranch is situated in eastern SCV[1].



I do not excel at geography, but I am fairly confident the open space dedication will protect land somewhere around the bottom half of this map, or thereabouts. (I think that's sufficiently evasive language).

I know it’s not an entirely rosy picture—developers are required by law to mitigate environmental damage these days, and plenty of other wildlands in Santa Clarita are under threat—but more than a square-mile of open space is still a big deal, especially in our City. If you want to go to the Wednesday, March 12 dedication at 11am, the press release directs you thusly: “The dedication event will take place at the Golden Valley Ranch trail head, located at Big Cedar Drive and Hidden Willow Drive, just off Via Princessa and Marsha McLean Parkway.” I know, those are a lot of names to take in, and I have comments about them all (Marsha McLean Parkway? Big Cedar Drive?) but I choose instead to smile, knowing that a decent chunk of the SCV will stay in a natural state. And who doesn't heart that?


[1]It’s not clear whether there will be an anti-celebration should coyotes from the Golden Valley Ranch open space area start devouring pets in the nearby Golden Valley Ranch homes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whoops! The open space dedication is actually 11 a.m. today, not noon, thanks for the blurb!--gail

mike devlin said...

At first sniff, this smells like a good grab, ecologically speaking, too.

Kay said...

Is there a good trail map for this area somewhere?

Kay