Local News in Brief : Modugno to Chair Santa Clarita Planners

Former San Fernando Mayor Patrick Modugno, vice president of the Conrad Hilton Foundation, has been elected chairman of the first Santa Clarita Planning Commission.

Modugno was chosen unanimously by his commission colleagues at the group’s first meeting Tuesday night. Rita Garasi was named vice chairman.

Modugno was elected to the San Fernando City Council in April, 1980, and was reelected to a second four-year term in 1984. He served as mayor from 1982 to 1984. He resigned from the council in 1985 when he moved with his wife and two daughters to the Santa Clarita Valley.

In San Fernando, Modugno said, he was faced with the task of revitalizing an older city. “Here, we’re starting from scratch and creating the new. It’s very exciting.”

He said the Planning Commission’s first tasks will be to develop ordinances governing the removal of oaks and the erecting of signs and billboard. “But our biggest task will be to develop a general plan, including a growth-management plan,” Modugno said.

Commissioners and the public discussed what kind of city they want to create in Santa Clarita at Tuesday night’s meeting.

“I saw a real determination . . . to sustain what exists and make that available to our children in the future,” Modugno said. Personally, he said, he would like to see a greenbelt created along the Santa Clara River, which transverses the valley.

Other planning commissioners are Connie Worden, Louis Brathwaite and Jeannette Sharar.