Proposed City Shrinks by Over 50% in County Plan

A county administrator has offered backers of the proposed City of Santa Clarita less than half as much land as they originally wanted, saying a smaller city would have a fatter municipal purse.

Ruth Benell, executive director of the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission, said Monday she will propose a city of 41 square miles, less than half the 95 square miles originally envisioned by the Santa Clarita City Formation Committee.

But her version, she said, will show a $3.5-million surplus in the annual budget, instead of the $4-million deficit she said would have been incurred under the original plan.

Cityhood backers, however, said they have not given up trying to form a much larger city than will be recommended by Benell, whose advice is usually accepted by the commissioners and the County Board of Supervisors.

Benell’s version of the proposed city will be presented to LAFCO at a public meeting April 22.

The boundaries as recommended by Benell cut through Canyon Country, omitting several densely developed residential tracts, and eliminate northern parts of Saugus. Also deleted from the original proposal are the community of Castaic, parts of Newhall and Valencia west of the Golden State Freeway and undeveloped areas of Newhall and Canyon Country southwest of the Antelope Valley Freeway, including the planned 5,400-home Canyon Park development.

Incorporation of 5 Communities

The city-formation committee had submitted a proposal to incorporate all of Castaic, Canyon County, Newhall, Saugus and Valencia in one sprawling city, an area which now has a population of about 106,000. Both the cityhood forces and Benell said they have not been able to estimate the population within the revised boundaries suggested.

Benell’s pared-down version of the proposed city is not as small as the cityhood forces had feared last week.

The wealthy Sand Canyon residential area of Canyon Country, southwest of the Antelope Valley Freeway, which Benell said earlier she had considered omitting, has been left in the proposed city.

“We’re very pleased about retaining the Sand Canyon area,” said formation committee vice chairwoman Connie Worden, adding that her reaction to the LAFCO official’s latest proposal is mixed.

“What is exciting is that now they’re saying we’re financially feasible,” she said. But, Worden said, Benell has eliminated from the city virtually all undeveloped land in the booming Santa Clarita Valley.

“If cities form to have something to say about land use and zoning, we need to have some undeveloped land,” Worden said.

Benell said that, by deleting the undeveloped areas, much of the high cost of fire protection in isolated brush areas has been reduced. Annual estimated revenues for the 41-square-mile city would be $19.6 million, whereas expenditures would be $16.1 million, she said.

“Primarily, what we’ve done is eliminate all the high-cost areas to the city. It’s much more manageable than the original proposal.”

Magic Mountain and the adjacent commercial area were eliminated because “some revenue-producing areas should be maintained to provide for county services,” Benell said. Sand Canyon, which has 300 registered voters, was left in because the cityhood committee argued that it was a “fully developed area and would add diversity to the city,” she said.

But cityhood backers still want more territory.

Art Donnelly, a cityhood backer, said the formation committee will submit its own 75-square-mile version of the city to the commission at the meeting April 22.

“We’d like to see the populated areas of Canyon Country back in the city,” he said. “We’re concerned about fire and police response time to the people who live there who would not be in the city,” he said.

He added that the Sheriff’s Department and county Fire Department might not serve those areas as well as would forces under the control of their own city.

The committee also wants Magic Mountain, the area’s largest employer, and commercial areas west of the Golden State Freeway put back in the city, Donnelly said.

Public Forum

Cityhood committee members will meet with Benell and LAFCO commissioners Kenneth I. Chappell and Thomas E. Jackson today. The cityhood committee will explain its new proposal at a public forum moderated by Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at William S. Hart High School in Newhall.

Donnelly said the cityhood committee will also schedule a meeting with developers before April 22.

“We’re not demanding anything,” he said. “We’re trying to be as reasonable as we can be. We want to be very flexible as far as any areas that are cut up. We just want to cooperate any way we can with LAFCO.”

Benell said she does not expect to put out another report before the April 22 meeting. “The next step is the public hearing,” she said.

The plan must be approved by LAFCO and the Board of Supervisors before being submitted to the voters of the proposed city.