Editor’s note: While our July 3 call for comments about an urban center in the Santa Clarita Valley was not directed at the now-defunct The Avenue at Santa Clarita planned development, several readers responded with specific feedback on that proposal. Here is one of them.

I am surprised at the elitist tone of The Signal’s editorial that was published June 27, advocating urban centers.

You claim that such centers would encompass the “condensing (of) homes, jobs and entertainment (which) means not sprawling but rather vertical building you might call an urban center.”

I suppose the prime example of your urban center concept would be the ill-advised proposed development of The Avenue in the old Smiser mule ranch flood plain. That development on 37 acres calls for high-rise buildings up to 13 stories, a 300-room hotel, 800 condos and apartments, multiple restaurants and shops and parking for more than 5,000 cars.

And all that with limited access from the two-lane Wiley Canyon Road would be located in the middle of existing adjacent residential communities.

Fortunately, the communities have organized at the grass-roots level to protect themselves from developments that would negatively impact their quality of life.

When we formed our city in December 1987, we expressed our vision on the city seal. The seal depicts a spreading oak tree surrounded by a verdant green belt, a clear blue sky, a single-family home and an open road. Not at all like your urban center concept.