15 More Days to Canvass : Santa Clarita Cityhood Drive Shy 275 Names

Leaders of the campaign to form a 90-square-mile city from five unincorporated communities in the fast-growing Santa Clarita Valley fell 275 signatures short of the number needed to bring the measure to a public vote, Los Angeles County officials said Thursday.

However, cityhood backers, by law, will have 15 more days to collect the extra signatures, said Ruth Benell, executive director of the county Local Agency Formation Commission, known as LAFCO.

Cityhood spokeswoman Connie Worden said she is confident that the committee campaigning to unite Castaic, Canyon Country, Newhall, Saugus and Valencia will have no trouble getting the necessary signatures.

The City Feasibility Committee needed 12,485 valid signatures--25% of the registered voters, Benell said. Of the 14,353 signatures submitted to LAFCO, 12,210 were valid and 2,143 were invalid, including 539 duplications, she said.

Disqualified Signatures

Benell said she will notify the committee today by registered mail of the result of the signature tally by the county registrar-recorder’s office. The extra 15 days will begin when cityhood backers receive the notice.

Worden said 255 signatures--almost enough to put the measure over the top--were disqualified because of a clerical error in which a cityhood volunteer inadvertently sent 28 copies of petitions instead of the originals. If the original petitions are submitted, they can be counted, Benell said.

“I don’t think it will be difficult at all to get the additional names,” Worden said. “It’s exciting to be this close and to know we’re going to make it.”

Jill Klajic, coordinator of volunteers, said signature-gatherers will concentrate on Castaic, which has not been canvassed door-to-door.

Financial Base for City

The new city of Santa Clarita would be “a beautiful city,” Klajic said. “We have no choice but to go for cityhood. If we don’t take control of our own destiny, this valley is going to be another San Fernando Valley.”

If cityhood backers are successful in their petition drive, Benell said, LAFCO staff will determine whether the area has the financial base necessary to support a city. Then, the seven-member commission will vote on the cityhood proposal.

If the commission decides in favor of the cityhood application, Benell said, the Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing. At the close of that hearing, she said, supervisors will set an election date unless 50% of the registered voters in the affected area have filed written protests against the proposal.