The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a Community Standards District (CSD) for San Francisquito Canyon.

Located northeast of Santa Clarita, the San Francisquito community is a sparsely populated, rural-minded area. This new CSD will help the residents maintain their way of life.

A CSD is an overriding special consideration for planning in a specific area. Since Los Angeles County is so large and diverse, CSDs offer unique communities a way to avoid being painted under the broad stroke of County-wide planning policy. The goal of forming a CSD is to ensure that future development fits in with the existing community environment. For example, a three-story apartment complex might fit in perfectly in south Los Angeles, however it would stick out like a sore thumb in San Francisquito Canyon.

“Through the hard work of the San Francisquito Canyon Preservation Association, local residents, property owners and my staff, we have made this CSD a reality,” said Los Angeles County 5th District Supervisor Michael Antonovich. “This action will protect the community’s quiet rural character and scenic natural setting.”

San Francisquito Canyon is not the only Santa Clarita Valley unincorporated area to sit under a CSD. The County Board of Supervisors established a special district for Castaic in 2004, mostly to protect the rural portions of the community from urban development standards. However, the Castaic CSD also serves another purpose; to promote commercial trucking related businesses in one area of the town, and to keep residential portions separate.