Local News in Brief : Forum to Be Held on Santa Clarita Cityhood

The Santa Clarita City Formation Committee will conduct the first in a series of public forums on cityhood at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 13 at 21616 Soledad Canyon Road, Saugus.

Spokeswoman Connie Worden said cityhood backers will continue to hold the forums the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month because its members “recognize the need to get more information out to the public.”

The committee, formerly called the City Feasibility Committee, will elect a new chairman and executive committee at a meeting Jan. 6, Worden said. Louis Garasi and Jim Schutte have served as co-chairmen of the committee since its inception two years ago.

Beginning in late February, the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission will hold public hearings on the committee’s proposal to combine Castaic, Canyon Country, Saugus, Newhall and Valencia in a proposed city of Santa Clarita. The tentative date for the first hearing is Feb. 25. The county is now studying the financial viability of the proposed city, said Ruth Benell, LAFCO executive director.

Worden said the cityhood committee will begin raising funds in anticipation that the cityhood proposal will be placed on the ballot in November of next year. The first event the group will sponsor will be a New Year’s Eve party at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, she said.