At Tuesday night’s meeting the Santa Clarita City Council authorized $1.2 million to purchase 6.4 acres of prime Valencia real estate with plans to build a Park-and-Ride.

Spencer Sager, the coordinator of his Boeing company van pool, enthusiastically supported the proposal.

“There’s no park-n-rides on the west side corridor along I-5. There’s plenty along 14 but nothing over here,” Sager said.

The engineer who commutes to El Segundo says his van pool group has just been kicked out of their 12^th parking location in 16 years of commuting.

“It’s a very good thing for the residents of this city, why that is, is that it’s used by residents like me who have jobs elsewhere and we want to live here, we want to raise our families here, we want to shop here. This enables us to easily do that,” said Sager.

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The proposed park-and-ride facility will be constructed on approximately 4.9 acres of the proposed lot on Valencia Boulevard, west of McBean Parkway, adjacent to the existing McBean Regional Transit Station. The remaining proposed lot will be assigned as landscaped trail.

Lynne Plambeck, President of SCOPE (Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment), said she supported transportation options and park-and-rides, but also emphasized the necessity to preserve the oak savannah.

City Manager Ken Pulskamp explained that a CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) study had already been completed. He said three oaks would be removed but 87 new ones would be planted for a net gain of 84.

The proposed development of the subject property includes a maximum of 285 parking spaces including handicap-accessible spaces, five bus canopy bays, low-impact site lighting, fencing, public art exhibits approved by the City’s Arts Commission, landscaping, and transit operation service features.

Sager says his van pool takes 14 vehicles off the road every day helping reduce traffic and smog.

“Imagine, with 4 van pools, all of sudden you’ve got 60 people off the roads. With a convenient lot that’s safe and everything it encourages ride sharing like this,” said Sager.

At the Planning Commission meeting on October 18, 2011, the Commission approved the Conditional Use Permit, moving the project closer to the design stage.