An Identity Problem : City of Santa Clarita Finds It’s Nowhere to Many People

Santa Clarita has a problem. Many people don’t know it exists.

Ask directory assistance for the telephone number for Santa Clarita City Hall and you probably will be told that there is no such place. Use the wrong ZIP code and a letter bound for Santa Clarita may go to Santa Clara, Santa Ana or any of the other Santas in the state.

Such are the trials of Los Angeles County’s youngest municipality. And the problem is compounded because Santa Clarita encompasses four established Santa Clarita Valley communities: Newhall, Saugus, Valencia and most of Canyon Country.

“I think we’ve got a serious problem,” said Councilman Carl Boyer III.

“I’ve gotten a lot of these complaints,” said Councilwoman Jan Heidt.

Plaint From Resident

Heidt and Boyer made their comments recently while the council discussed a letter from a new resident who had discovered that no one seemed to know where she lives.

“After getting here, it seems that most Californians have no idea where Santa Clarita is,” wrote Linda Wellintz. “In fact, when we applied for a library card, we were told we could not use Santa Clarita as the city and that we had to use Newhall. . . .

“Were you aware that if you call information and ask for Santa Clarita, you will be told that no such place exists in California? We also went into a local store and wrote out a check, and we were asked where Santa Clarita was. This store lies within what we understand the boundaries of Santa Clarita to be.”

Council members and city residents tell similar tales. John Mann, owner of Triple M Graphics, recalled how a client in the San Fernando Valley mailed a printing order to him shortly after Santa Clarita incorporated on Dec. 15. The order never arrived.

“It came back to her from Santa Clara,” he said.

More Explaining to Do

Newhall resident Boyer said that, after years of having to explain where Newhall is, he now is having to explain how to find Santa Clarita.

“This may be why some public relations firms contacted us after the election,” said Mayor Howard R. (Buck) McKeon.

What’s a city with no reputation to do?

Heidt said the city should complain to Pacific Bell. But Charlene Baldwin, a Pacific Bell spokeswoman, said new computer software that will include Santa Clarita listings will not be installed until August or September. The company always has to reprogram software whenever a new city is created, Baldwin said.

“Santa Clarita is not unique,” she said.

John Trap, Santa Clarita’s postmaster, said the young city is just experiencing growing pains. “Down the road sometime, everyone’s going to say Santa Clarita,” he said. “Mission Viejo went through the same thing.”

As long as people use the correct ZIP code, Trap said, their mail should reach its intended destination.

Councilman Boyer said the new city’s effort to forge an identity might start with its own stationery--the letterhead now states that Santa Clarita’s city offices are in Canyon Country.

Stationery Change

“I think the first thing we should do is have our stationery become Santa Clarita, not Canyon Country,” he said.

Boyer has had his own troubles with the new city. After incorporation, he informed the Unocal oil company that his address had become Santa Clarita, not Newhall.

“The next time the bill came to Saugus,” he said.

So Boyer pointed out the error.

“This month,” he said, “the bill came to Castaic.”