Site for Transit Hub Selected in Valencia

A 1 1/2-acre parcel of land in the heart of Valencia’s commercial district will be the site of the city’s first transit center, officials said Tuesday.

The estimated $2-million transit center will serve as the main transportation hub for the city’s fleet of 23 buses, which serve nine routes within the Santa Clarita Valley. It is targeted for completion in 1999.

The city purchased the property, which is near Valencia Boulevard and McBean Parkway, for $567,000 from the Newhall Land & Farming Co., which owns owns much of the surrounding real estate, including Valencia Town Center shopping mall and Town Center Drive, an outdoor shopping area currently under construction.

Santa Clarita Transit Manager Ron Kilcoyne said the center will improve the efficiency of the city’s bus system.

“People who need to transfer between buses will be able to save up to 15 minutes on a one-way trip because they will no longer have to travel to the Santa Clarita Metrolink station to transfer buses,” Kilcoyne said, referring to the city’s present transportation hub on Soledad Canyon Road in Saugus. Bob Murphy, Santa Clarita’s transportation coordinator, said that city studies show the new transit center will cut as many as 90,000 miles a year in duplicated service.

“Right now we have a lot of what we call ‘caravanning,’ ” Murphy said. “You have several buses leaving the Metrolink station and traveling west in a caravan. They’re all covering the same ground and making the same stops.”

“This gives us the ability to expand services without increasing costs by erasing the built-in inefficiency in the current system,” he said.

Some unserved areas that could be added to bus routes as a result of the savings include Stevenson Ranch, Sierra Highway north of Soledad Canyon Road, and The Master’s College on Placerita Canyon Road in Newhall, Murphy said.

The transit center will include restrooms, a bus shelter with a waiting platform and water fountain, benches and landscaping, officials said.

City funds paid for the property, but the center’s estimated $1.5-million construction cost will be covered largely by federal grants distributed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said Don Williams, a senior planner for the city.

“We really believe this is an excellent site,” Williams said. “It’s within walking distance of College of the Canyons, the sheriff’s station and all of the government services, and it’s literally across the street from the mall.”