Where Boom Town Meets Country Living : Canyon Country: In the late ‘80s, growing families, retirees and young professionals fled L.A. to come here.

Mike Grandriff knew exactly what he wanted for his first house. He had grown up in the foothills of La Crescenta, surrounded by canyons and open space, and he hoped to buy in an area with similar geography.

Brandriff, 26 and recently married, also sought quality schools, affordable prices and a relatively new house in move-in condition.

When his hometown proved too expensive, Brandriff figured he would have to make concessions.

But then a realtor showed Brandriff a three-bedroom, two-bath home in Canyon Country, off Highway 14 in Santa Clarita Valley--miles from where he had hoped to buy. Suddenly, Brandriff’s dream of mountain views and spacious floor plans seemed attainable.

“I didn’t want to pay the association fees on a brand-new house, and the ones built in the 1930s that I looked at in La Crescenta were too small,” said Brandriff, who happily bought something in between--a 1,400 square-foot, $174,000 Pinetree tract home that he moved into with his wife, Cara, in September, 1993.

The Brandriffs aren’t the first home buyers to find happiness in Canyon Country. In the late 1980s, growing families, retirees and young professionals anxious to escape Los Angeles’ crime, smog and violence-plagued schools flocked to Canyon Country, swelling its population to more than 38,000. In 1987, the needs of these new residents and those of fast-growing Valencia, Newhall and Saugus compelled the four communities to incorporate as the City of Santa Clarita, with a population of more than 135,000.

Canyon Country--bounded roughly by Bouquet Canyon Road on the west, the ridge line between Plum Canyon and Soledad Canyon on the north, Shadow Pines Boulevard on the east and the Antelope Valley Freeway 14 on the south--comprises about one-third of the city’s total area.

The Northridge earthquake hit hard in Canyon Country. Many dwellings sustained damage, but homeowners describe it as primarily cosmetic, rather than structural. The area’s freeway system did not fare so well. Both of the main arteries out of the Santa Clarita Valley, the Highway 14 and Interstate 5, ruptured, leaving residents without a sufficient road south into Los Angeles.

For weeks, commuters were forced onto clogged two-lane roads or overtaxed Metrolink trains. Now that most of the key freeway connections have been restored contractors are busy making home repairs, residents say Canyon Country is pretty much back to normal.

Nearly 30% of today’s Canyon Country home buyers are, like the Brandriffs, first-timers, according to Remax Realty’s Harlan Hice. They come to Canyon Country, he says, for much the same reasons as their counterparts a decade earlier, but with an added bonus: bargain housing prices brought on by the sluggish economy.

Current prices meet almost any budget--$65,000 for a small condominium; $140,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bath starter home; $3.5 million for an English Tudor mansion in the exclusive Sand Canyon area.

The 1994 FBI crime ranking, which placed Santa Clarita the fourth safest among U.S. cities with more than 100,000 residents, has also boosted home sales. “I like the fact that I can leave my garage door open if I want to,” Brandriff said.

For Jennifer and Phil Sykes, who welcomed their first child in March, Canyon Country’s reputation for good schools was a significant draw. The young couple, who were relieved that their earthquake damage amounted to only $200 for drywall patching and repainting, paid $138,000 for their 1,050-square-foot, two-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath townhouse in the Tres Robles complex in 1991.

“For the same money in the San Fernando Valley, we could have bought only in an unsafe neighborhood,” said Phil Sykes, a 32-year-old manufacturer’s sales representative.

Jennifer Sykes, 30, a special-education teacher at Aragon Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles’ Cypress Park neighborhood, heard through her colleagues about Canyon Country schools’ sound reputation. “As a teacher, that was very important to me,” she said.

In 1993, 82% of Canyon High School’s graduates went on to college, said Dr. Gary Wexler, director of curriculum for Santa Clarita’s William S. Hart Union High School District. Students at Sierra Vista Junior High ranked in the 85th percentile in math and in the 82nd percentile in science in 1992, he added.

Lisa McCarter, 28, who grew up in Canyon Country and also recently had her first child, worries whether students at the neighborhood campuses will be able to maintain those test scores as the population booms. “We need more schools here,” she insists. “My little sister needed extra tutoring because her class was too full.”

A new junior high school in the Rainbow Glen area is opening to help alleviate the significant overcrowding problem, Wexler said. District officials are also discussing redrawing boundaries to shift students to less crowded schools.

Pam Wheeler, who bought her 1,300-square-foot, three-bedroom townhouse for $127,000 in 1988, knows about crowds in Canyon Country, but hers are found on the Metrolink platform, not the playground. Long before thousands of earthquake-weary commuters discovered the rail line, Wheeler would leave her house at 6:15 a.m. to catch the 6:35 train at the Saugus stop. (A closer station to her house has since opened.)

An hour or so later, the 37-year-old tax manager at a Big Six accounting firm would reach her office. Even with the recent fight for seats, she’s still a dedicated Metrolink fan.

Traffic may be slower right now on area highways, but Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Jan Heidt contends congestion has actually eased on city streets in the last three years, thanks largely to street widening and bridge refurbishing. “Now that housing development has slowed down since the 1980s, the city has a chance to catch up on infrastructure problems,” she noted.

One such civic matter is a proposed 190-million-ton landfill to be built in Elsmere Canyon, 1.5 miles east of the city. An environmental-impact report on the landfill is three years overdue.

The Elsmere Canyon project is just one example of development out of control in Santa Clarita, contend some longtime Canyon Country homeowners.

“I left the San Fernando Valley to escape all this expansion,” said Joline Edmiston, who was forced to call on her son-in-law, a pilot, to fly her to her Encino office in the days after the quake. She’s lived in Canyon Country since 1973, when she paid $60,000 for a 2,000-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bath home in the Mountain Shadows tract. Back then, she remembers, the area was a rustic, rural outpost with a pioneer flavor. “There was only one stoplight. Now we’ve really become a city,” she bemoaned.

Councilwoman Heidt counters that Canyon Country’s metamorphosis into an incorporated city has helped, not hurt, the community. “There was no way for residents to have input into the development of Canyon Country without becoming a city,” she said.

And although residents such as Edmiston pine for Canyon Country’s once-slower pace, they do see some rewards in its growth. With the opening of the Valencia Town Center, which boasts Robinsons-May, Sears and JC Penney stores, residents no longer have to drive to San Fernando Valley shopping centers for the nearest department store. Price Club and Home Depot stores, whose discount merchandise caters to the area’s growing families, have also opened recently. Movie theaters and the cultural programs at Cal Arts in Valencia offer Canyon Country homeowners some evening activities, but many residents would welcome more entertainment venues.

Santa Clarita Associate City Planner Fred Follstad says he would like to see more upscale restaurants in Canyon Country. “We basically have fast-food places up here,” he lamented.

Pam Wheeler agrees. “Whenever we go out to eat at a decent restaurant, there are screaming kids running around,” she complained. “There are no places to go that are just for adults.”

Other residents, though, contend that it’s the family atmosphere that sets Canyon Country apart from other Southland neighborhoods.

For Phil and Jennifer Sykes, that sense of community starts at home. “Where we used to live nobody even talked to each other,” said Jennifer. “Now we’re having lobster bakes in our complex and we know all our neighbors. It’s made all the difference.”

Sheri Ross Gordon is a writer and editor in Culver City.

At a Glance

Population 1994 estimate: 4,142 Annual income Per capita: $23,344 Median household: $65,327 Household distribution Less than $30,000: 9.1% $30,000 - $60,000: 28.2% $60,000 - $100,000: 44.3% $100,000 - $150,000: 14.9% $150,000 +: 3.0%

Canyon Country Home Sale Data Sample Size (for 10-year period): 1,236 Ave. home size (square feet): 1,387 Ave. Year Built: 1974 Ave. No. Bedrms: 3.21 Ave. No. Baths: 2.11 Pool: 18% View homes: 10% Central air: 65% Floodzone: 51% Price Range (1993-94): $118,500-$272,000 Predominant Value: $148,000 Age Range: 4-92 years Predominant Age: 23 years ***

Average Sales Data

Year Total $ per Median Sales sq. ft. price 1994* 24 $118.66 $156,583 1993 67 $122.58 $178,141 1992 74 $134.28 $183,839 1991 77 $139.84 $186,246 1990 102 $150.78 $195,328 1989 132 $143.06 $193,746 1988 247 $116.94 $155,484 1987 184 $102.94 $142,763 1986 166 $88.91 $119,140 1985 163 $81.04 $115,190

*1994 data current through June.

Source: TRW Redi Property Data, Riverside