Backers Cling to Cityhood for Santa Clarita

Members of the committee seeking cityhood for the Santa Clarita Valley met for the second straight day Saturday to assess a county report indicating that the proposed city was too large geographically and could not produce enough revenue to balance its budget.

The long-anticipated report, issued Thursday by the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission, recommended that the boundaries of the city be shrunk to exclude Castaic and portions of Valencia and Newhall. It also estimated that the city would experience a budget deficit of about $2.5 million a year.

Carl Boyer III, chairman of the City of Santa Clarita Formation Committee, acknowledged that parts of the proposed city’s boundaries would have to be redrawn to keep some housing tracts from being divided by the city limits.

But he said that there is strong sentiment among residents of Castaic to be included. “We’re going to work as hard as we can to keep the people of Castaic in the proposed city,” Boyer said.

As for balancing the budget, Boyer said the committee has tentatively found alternatives to the LAFCO estimate of the proposed city’s costs and revenues that could create a surplus of up to $1 million.

“Basically, they’re very conservative,” Boyer said of LAFCO. “We’ve always tended to see LAFCO underestimate revenues and overestimate costs. And that’s what we want. The last thing we want to do is go into a city incorporation that would not work.”

“Generally speaking, the mood around here is very upbeat,” Boyer said. “Overall, we were very pleased with the report.”

The committee will meet Thursday to finish its analysis of the report. A list of questions and proposed changes will then be submitted to LAFCO, Boyer said.

The committee will also hold a public forum on cityhood Tuesday night, Boyer said. Veterans of successful cityhood drives in Westlake Village and Lancaster will discuss their experiences at the forum.