Studio, Neighbors in Agreement [1]

      The once-acrimonious conflict between Melody Ranch owners and Placerita Canyon residents ended in handshakes this week, even before the Santa Clarita City Council denied residents’ appeal aimed at blocking a 45-foot-tall sound stage at the historic filming site.

    Several neighbors voiced their support for the ranch and renewed filming there.
    “They’re an asset to the community,” Eva Caliendo said after the hearing. Caliendo, who said she lives 100 feet from the ranch, added, “It’s a wonderful place. It’s a historical landmark; they’re wonderful people.”
    One of the owners’ personal friends seconded that view.
    “I was upset at things that had been said at the Planning (Commission) meeting,” said Tamara Bowers, also a local resident. “I wanted to defend their honor and support them. I was in the movie industry and it’s so necessary to have the movie industry functioning in the Santa Clarita Valley.”
    The story had been different at a recent Planning Commission meeting, during which several property owners complained about plans to construct a new sound stage that exceeded the city’s standard height restrictions.
    The residents also complained about excessive traffic from filming-equipment trucks and questioned whether stepped-up filming at the scene of many an old Western would spoil the rural nature of the canyon.  

More about this story at The Signals [3]website!!