Sand Canyon : Protests Over Church Spur Traffic Study

A traffic study of Sand Canyon Road in Canyon County has been ordered by Los Angeles County supervisors after area residents protesting the building of a Mormon church there referred to the winding, two-lane rural highway as “a death trap.”

To give time for the study, the Board of Supervisors on Thursday postponed until March 26 a decision on whether to allow the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build a 17,000-square-foot church at Sand Canyon and Condor Ridge Road.

Residents testifying at a lengthy public hearing said traffic generated by the church and its daily activities will increase congestion on Sand Canyon Road, where they said the accident rate rises each year.

Fourteen people have died in traffic accidents on the street since January, said San Fernando Police Chief Dominick J. Rivetti, who lives in the area. The road is one of the three most dangerous in the Santa Clarita Valley, he said.

“People are dying on that road, and there’s been no traffic study done,” resident Steven Crouch said. “It’s a death trap.”

Crouch and other residents also complained that the church is too big for a rural area. One resident, Lee Lady, suggested that the building be scaled down to about 7,000 square feet.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the area, asked residents and church leaders to meet next week in an attempt to reach a compromise on the building’s size and configuration.

Although church leaders agreed to meet with residents, they said they already have compromised by making changes requested by the Regional Planning Commission.

Gary Larkins, president of the church’s Santa Clarita Stake, said the plans originally called for one large building, but that they were modified to provide for two buildings connected by a walkway. Church leaders also agreed to a capacity of 372 people in its main assembly room, instead of the 600 proposed, he said.