Site Choice Dispute : Santa Clarita City Hall Already Attracting Ire

The Santa Clarita City Council is expected to approve a lease Tuesday that will place the new municipality’s City Hall in Valencia for the next five to seven years.

News of the impending action has upset some residents who live on the city’s east side.

“Valencia is not in the center of the City of Santa Clarita,” said Allan Cameron, of Canyon Country, who served as a member of the Santa Clarita City Formation Committee. “City Hall should be in the center of town.”

Especially critical of Valencia as the choice for the temporary City Hall is Mayor Pro Tem Jan Heidt, who said Canyon Country--where she lives--has long been treated as “the stepchild” of the Santa Clarita Valley.

Having the City Hall in the Valencia-Newhall area “is not doing the city a favor,” she said.

But proponents of the Valencia site said it is convenient for those doing business with the city because it is near Los Angeles County offices and the Golden State Freeway.

At a meeting last week, the City Council voted 4 to 1 to negotiate with Saunders Development Corp. for space in the Valencia National Bank Building at 23920 W. Valencia Blvd. Heidt was the only council member who opposed that location.

The Saunders proposal was chosen over a bid by Newhall Land & Farming Co., which offered a building in its new Valley Business Center, near the current City Hall at 21021 Soledad Canyon Road, Canyon Country.

Daniel B. Hucks, property manager of Newhall Land, noted in a letter to acting City Manager E. Fredrick Bien that the business center “is located virtually in the center of the new City of Santa Clarita.”

Heidt said she favored the Newhall Land proposal because City Hall would be an equal distance for residents living at either the western or eastern boundaries of the city.

Mayor Howard P. (Buck) McKeon agreed that City Hall should be in the center of the city. But an offer of six months’ free rent persuaded McKeon and the council members Jo Anne Darcy, Dennis Koontz and Carl Boyer III to choose the Valencia site. McKeon said the free rent would save the city $100,000.

“Valencia is the logical place for us to be,” Boyer said. He also noted that space offered by Newhall Land--15,960 square feet--was less than the Saunders proposal offered.

Both bidders proposed a monthly rent of $1.25 per square foot of space leased. Newhall Land offered to construct a building according to the city’s specifications. Saunders Development offered 23,268 square feet on the third floor of the bank building and 6,565 square feet on the ground floor for a City Council chamber.

Bien said it would take between five and seven years for the city to build its own City Hall.