Chapter 12 - The Great Plains and Prairies

The Santa Clarita Valley is not prone to any extreme weather like tornadoes found on the Great Plains. The harshest weather has been specs of snow about three times in the past ten years. The weather is quite similar to the San Fernando Valley just a few degrees hotter and colder during the extreme seasons. To compare and contrast the future of the Great Plains and Santa Clarita other resources are steadily being developed amongst new housing communities in the valley. Solar panels are the newest trend to conserve energy and to get installed on your house to help conserve energy costs.

Chapter 11 - The Agricultural Core

Santa Clarita is a big business oriented city with a variety of manufacturing plants and industrial parks located on the northern part of the city. I think the valley is booming to its capacity very quickly with the non-existent space they are trying to build on.

Here is some information from the California Employment Department that portrays the biggest companies in the valley.

Santa Clarita maintains one of the lowest unemployment rates in Los Angeles County. The City’s unemployment rate was 4.9% in August 2008 compared to 8.2% for Los Angeles County and 7.6% for the State of California.




LARGEST EMPLOYERS

COMPANY TYPE OF BUSINESS # OF EMPLOYEES
Six Flags Magic Mountain Theme Park 3,689
William S. Hart Union School District Public High & Junior High School District 2,455
Princess Cruises Vacation Cruise line Services 2,100
Saugus Union School District Public Elementary School District 2,010
U.S. Postal Service US Postal Service 1,790
College of the Canyons Community College 1,678
Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital Healthcare Services 1,212
H. R. Textron Aerospace Manufacturer 845
Newhall School District Public Elementary School District 836
The Master's College Christian Liberal Arts College 755
Specialty Laboratories Medical Research & Development 725
City of Santa Clarita Government Agency 695
Arvato Services Business Services 586
California Institute of the Arts Private Art School 500
Aerospace Dynamics Aerospace Structural Components 420
Fanfare Media Works International Printing & Publishing 407

Source: California Employment Development Department, June 2007


The closest agricultural zones are in Agua Dulce for some spread out farmland property, or in the Ventura Country West towards Fillmore.

Chapter 10 - The Southern Coastlands: On the Subtropical Margin

In subtropical coastlands around the globe citrus, sugar, rice and a handful of vegetables are easily grown. but not in Santa Clarita.  Unfortunately, the Santa Clarita Valley is a desert and barely has any extra land for farming.  The closest signs of farming are if you head west towards the beach you will pass by a small town for farming called Fillmore where they have orange and lemon groves along with private owned farms.