Vista Canyon: Reimaging Suburbia

Reimaging the Suburban Experience

VISTA CANYON

Jim Backer is president of JSB Development, the company responsible for bringing Vista Canyon community to life. LEFT: COURTESY PHOTO RIGHT: PHOTO BY DAN WATSON / THE SIGNAL

By Jim Walker

Signal Staff Writer

If you’ve driven north on the 14 Freeway through eastern Canyon Country in the last couple years, and looked across the riverbed, you’ve surely noticed the burgeoning development of Vista Canyon.

Approved by the city of Santa Clarita in 2011 for 1,100 residential units and 950,000 square feet of commercial space (office, retail, hotel), the project has, from its inception, been designed as a community in every sense of the word.

It is described as “a new community that reimagines the suburban experience, combining the openness and nature of the Southern California lifestyle with a mass transit and pedestrian-oriented, one-of-a-kind environment in which to live, work and play.”

This reimagining includes a bus transfer center and Metrolink commuter rail station as part of the Vista Canyon Regional Transit Center, plus living/ working/shopping space within walking distance and easy access to trails and bike paths. When completed, there will even be a bridge across the riverbed for easy access to the 14 freeway. There will be park and recreational space and even a water factory.

Jim Backer is president of JSB Development, the company bringing Vista Canyon to life. Steve Valenziano was a partner in the project until he retired in 2021, and Glenn Adamick has been the skillful leader of the entitlement efforts from the beginning.

With decades of experience developing Santa cratic process, and how to work with government,” Backer said.

During his senior year at Stanford, he was a resident assistant in a dorm. “I learned that we could host a trustee for dinner in our dorm, and that trustee turned out to be Jim Dickason, chairman of The Newhall Land and Farming Company,” he said.

“We hit it off, and he helped me start interviewing with banks. But I realized banks weren’t really for me, and so he said to come on down and take a look at Newhall Land. I did and got a job.”

Backer noted that his history major actually did relate to land development. “Land is nothing but history.” Also of benefit was that he really likes people. “A big part of my work is people appreciation,” he said. “And I met a lot of great mentors while with Newhall Land.” He did, however, go on and get his MBA from Anderson School of Business at UCLA.

Backer and JSB are active in the SCV community, supporting service and charitable organizations, the SCV Chamber of Commerce and SCV Economic Development Corporation.

“I’m president of what has become the SCV Education Foundation, on the chamber board and EDC board, and one of those providing leadership for the Foundation for Children’s Dental Health. Fortunately (for the children), we got replaced by the State of California, which created an insurance program now designed to help low-income families receive dental care.”

Backer has been deeply involved with William

Clarita properties, and deep roots in the community, Backer’s creative mind and guiding hand have ensured the project will usher in the future of design and sustainability.

“We’re trying to set the tone with cutting-edge architecture,” he said. “And, more important, we are really trying to make this a sustainable community in which to live, work, exercise, use trails and park space — have multiple transportation options – and enjoy the benefits of solar and our Water Factory. We’d like people to enjoy the outdoors and all other aspects of this unique community as much as possible.”

Deep Community Roots

Jim Backer has been developing properties in the SCV for many years, first with Newhall Land, and, since forming JSB in 2000, with his own company. With Newhall Land, he was instrumental in the creation of the Valencia Commerce Center and Town Center Drive.

JSB has been responsible for more than 50 major buildings in the SCV, totaling more than 1.5 million square feet of space. Just a few of the notable projects JSB has built or contributed to include Tourney Place, RiverCourt, Monticello, and Centre Pointe Business Park.

Backer has lived in the Santa Clarita Valley since 1986, brought his wife Susan here and raised three children. But none of that could have been predicted.

Born and raised in Omaha, Neb., he attended Stanford University as a history major. During one summer in his Stanford days, he interned in the US Senate. “It helped me understand the demo-