Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Revitalization Study Envisions Newhall as Downtown : Redevelopment: Plan addresses concerns over crime and the perception of the community as a deteriorating area.

A seven-month study on revitalizing Newhall has recommended the city prepare a downtown Newhall master plan, develop a historic district for the area and look into creating Metrolink locations for the community.

The study, prepared by Santa Cruz-based consultants Jeff Oberdorfer & Associates, was released Wednesday. It highlighted the community’s concern over crime and the perception of Newhall as a deteriorating area. The study suggested that Santa Clarita move toward making Newhall a downtown area, something the fledgling city lacks.

Newhall has long been viewed as impoverished relative to other parts of Santa Clarita. Even before the city incorporated almost six years ago, Los Angeles County had tried with little success to revitalize the area, which includes a large pocket of substandard housing and shuttered storefronts.

“We have put money into it, the county has put money into it, and it keeps going down a black hole,” said Mayor Jan Heidt at Wednesday’s City Council workshop, where the study was released.

The county did a smaller study in the late 1970s, said Councilwoman Jo Anne Darcy, and subsequently spent more than $4 million for curbs, gutters, sidewalks and other infrastructure before Newhall became part of Santa Clarita in 1987.

The city dedicated $70,000 to the study and master plan for Newhall, which Darcy said is slated to be completed early next year.

“We have made progress,” said Darcy, who is also a field deputy for county Supervisor Michael Antonovich. “It’s an expensive hole. It’s going to take probably another 5 or $10 million to do it right.”

Among the most expensive of the improvements is changing the perception of Newhall as unsafe, Darcy said. Public safety, the report said, was “of critical importance to all segments of the Santa Clarita Valley community.”

Many of the several hundred people interviewed for the study suggested that the city open a storefront sheriff’s station in Newhall and initiate a sheriff’s patrol using bilingual officers on horseback.

Despite the costs of setting up such programs, Darcy hopes to make room in the city budget for some type of stepped-up law enforcement presence next year.