Los Angeles County has a population of nearly 11 million people. It is the largest county in California and there are only nine states (STATES!) in the U.S. that are larger than L.A. County.
There are five county supervisors who represent 11 million people with the recent escalation of health (COVID-19) issues and edicts, election of a liberal district attorney, the actions of defunding police, calls to displace an elected sheriff, ignoring our local business needs, and wide ranges of problems and issues and opinions that don’t represent the majority interests of the Santa Clarita Valley area, it may be time to consider forming a new county in California. Our health, education, business, community development and law enforcement needs and interests are becoming more and more different than the rest of L.A. County.
If the neighboring areas north of the Interstate 5 and Highway 14 freeway intersection were to secede and form a new county including Stevenson Ranch, Santa Clarita, Castaic, Agua Dulce and Acton, there would be a grouping of nearly 350,000 to 400,000 people. Of the current 58 counties in California, this would make the new county about the 23rd most populous county. If we added the Antelope valley to this new county — not advocating that — this would move the population up to 500,000 to 550,000 people and the new county would be the 15th or 16th most populous county in California.
People move to this region for a reason — it’s calm, peaceful, family-oriented, great schools, law-abiding (mostly), organized, etc. And, it’s not cluttered with the political baggage to the south of us. Our community will continue to experience growth pains with large developments currently underway. Such an effort to secede from L.A. County would be very challenging and such an idea is not critical of the many good services that are currently provided by the county (fire police, medical, public works, etc.) God bless our county workers!
I think it is time to get some organization and representation that will properly address the issues that the “new county” is facing while preserving the uniqueness of our area.
John Dennis
Canyon Country
