5 CENTS SPRING 2007 YEAR 13, NUMBER 1 Calm Coming To Downtown. Best In The West Saddle Up Downtown Newhall. If you are read- By CHRIS PRICE, ing this in late-February you may already have seen construction activ- ASSISTANT CITY ENGINEER, For 14th Annual ities starting up. CITY OF SANTA CLARITA. The professional traffic and civil engineers mentioned in a previous Cowboy Fest. article have completed the process New Parking Pattern, Street of re-designing striping, signal modi- fications, and producing finished By MICHAEL FLEMING Restriping Designed To Fulfill construction plans and specifica- ARTS AND EVENTS COORDINATOR, Vision Of Newhall Plan. tions to shift one lane of traffic from San Fernando Road over to Railroad CITY OF SANTA CLARITA. Avenue between 5th and 11th Streets. The restripe is coming! The first That shift in commuter traffic City’s Event To Feature major capital project specifically will allow for back-in angle parking Top Names In Western designed to fulfill the vision of the along San Fernando Road between CLARITA CITY OF SANTA Downtown Newhall Specific Plan is Lyons Avenue and 5th Street. The Entertainment. on its way. Agency is expected to award the A SHIFT IN DOWNTOWN By the time you read this, city construction contract during the TRAFFIC FLOW IS PLANNED staff members will have recommend- February 13 regular City Council TO CREATE CALMER Put on your chaps, grab your ed that the Redevelopment Agency meeting. CONDITIONS AND ALLOW hat, and dust off those old cowboy Board award a construction contract The act of awarding the restripe boots for the City of Santa Clarita’s BACK-IN ANGLE PARKING. to bring back-in angle parking to CONTINUED ON PAGE 4. fourteenth annual Cowboy Festival, April 25-29. Recently named by True West Magazine as one of the best cowboy festivals nationwide, the City of North Newhall Plan On Hold. Santa Clarita’s Cowboy Festival will showcase the best performers in western entertainment at Melody By JASON SMISKO Ranch Motion Picture Studios and SENIOR PLANNER, other local venues throughout the Santa Clarita Valley. CITY OF SANTA CLARITA. “The 2007 Cowboy Festival promises to be a memorable year for all our guests,” said City Mayor Rail Crossing Raises Eyebrows At PUC. Marsha McLean. “Each year, our City, with the help of Melody Ranch and all the great Western perform- ers, showcases a once-in-a-lifetime Council, Planning Commission To Hold Joint Session opportunity to experience life in the May 1 To Tackle At-Grade Crossing Issues. old West,” she added. Each year, the Cowboy Festival attracts western singers, balladeers, storytellers and poets from around The North Newhall Specific Plan has been put on hold the country, for what is considered while the City develops a strategy to gain government to be the premier festival of its kind. approval for a rail crossing that’s integral to the North Newhall The 2007 cowboy lineup improvement plan. THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES includes headliners such as cowboy In December 2006, staff temporarily suspended the land COMMISSION HAS A PROBLEM WITH THE poet/comedian Baxter Black, cow- use planning of this project in order to concentrate on issues CITY’S PLAN TO CHANGE THE RAIL CROSSINGS boy balladeer Don Edwards, heart- specific to vehicular circulation and rail crossings. It had IN THE NORTH NEWHALL PROJECT AREA. felt ballads and cowboy swing come to the project team’s attention that obtaining multiple music from Wylie and the Wild West, agency approval (most notably, the Public Utilities Commis- In December, the project team met with potential con- and western melodies from the Sons sion) for an at-grade rail crossing of the potential Lyons sultants from the railroad industry to discuss the achievability of the San Joaquin. Avenue extension north into the project boundary could be of the plan’s objectives and to begin strategizing for agency Festivities will include the exceptionally difficult. CONTINUED ON PAGE 11. CONTINUED ON PAGE 11. 2. cating that the list was not intended to be bound by city limits.) The list is supposed to ©2007, OLD TOWN NEWHALL USA. serve as a trigger. If a develop- LEON WORDEN, Editor and Publisher. er comes to the city with a plan to alter or demolish one of the properties on the list, a EDITORIAL. red flag is supposed to go up. It hasn’t always worked; many years ago the city forgot to check the list and approved the demolition of a home on We Must Save Chestnut Street in Newhall that had been built in 1908 by the family of a onetime Los Angeles County sheriff. The American. The city needs to cast aside any preconceived notions as it (hopefully) devel- ops an ordinance to preserve What would you say if a story by Bill Crowl on page 3 our valley’s important histori- developer came to you with a of this edition of the Gazette.) cal places. plan to rip out one of the most If the American Theater Certainly, the city needs historic and architecturally isn’t worth saving, nothing is. to pay attention to the list — unique buildings in Newhall, And if this developer doesn’t but with so many errors and the Santa Clarita Valley’s first “see any value” in it, we need a omissions, it needs to develop freestanding movie theater, different developer to carry a better list. The city shouldn’t built in 1941 by no less a figure out the city’s plans — which be “married to the list,” espe- than William S. Hart, and do call for the American The- cially not the current one. replace it with apartments? ater to be preserved. What should be pre- Would you laugh in the Surely there will be some served? Well, as noted at a city developer’s face? Would you deviations from the City Coun- Planning Commission meeting scream? cil-approved Downtown when the issue last came up a Well, it actually happened. Newhall Specific Plan. When it CURRENT NEWHALL RESIDENTS ARE LIKELY TO couple of years ago (yes, it has A developer came to the city comes time to turn the dirt and been that long), a property KNOW THE HISTORIC AMERICAN THEATER AS with a plan to do just that. pour the concrete, it’s shouldn’t be preserved “just As part of its planned inevitable that there will be a THE HOME OF AMERICAN LEGION POST 507. because” it is more than 50 reconfiguration of the streets few changes. years old. There needs to be in Old Town Newhall, the But there is no way the We were the location of etly dies. The idea is back in some common sense to it. Santa Clarita Redevelopment city should abide this radical a California’s first gold discovery play again, and this time, the What should private Agency (i.e., the city of Santa departure — and in the end, (1842, Placerita Canyon, six city needs to follow through. home and landowners be Clarita) put some of the con- the city didn’t. The city reject- years before Sutter’s Mill). We As the city goes forward, barred from doing? That’s struction projects to bid. One ed the bid and started the were the birthplace of the Cali- it needs to do some rethinking. another question that will of the projects is the realign- process over again. fornia oil industry (1876, Pico You see, there is this “list” require careful consideration. ment of San Fernando Road When the new bids come Canyon). We were the place of historic properties in the In general, cities with historic and Lyons Avenue, with new in, the city should accept noth- where the rails came together Santa Clarita General Plan. preservation ordinances allow construction at the terminus of ing less than a nice, big library to link Los Angeles with the The list includes 33 homes, owners to alter the interior of San Fernando. (San Fernando, building — or at least some rest of the nation. (1876, commercial buildings and their buildings however they aka “Main Street,” will dead- landmark public building that Canyon Country). We were locations that have state or want, but try to preserve the end at Lyons; the through will attract patrons to Old one of the earliest and most national landmark status, or exterior. street will be Railroad Avenue. Town Newhall — and it should popular locations for filming, were deemed to be a “city What no city in its right The plan is, if you’re driving on insist on the preservation of dating from the beginning of point of historical interest.” mind would do is use eminent San Fernando and you come the American Theater. the last century when the The problem is, the list domain to take a historic the- to a stop at Lyons, you’ll be Who knows? Maybe the movie industry relocated from was written back in 1991 when ater building from an unwilling looking up at a new public good folks at America Legion New York City to Hollywood. the city was new. The list is seller just so it can be torn library building.) Post 507 can work with the We’re fortunate to have a riddled with errors and, more down to make way for apart- The city didn’t receive city and start showing old few remaining buildings and importantly, omissions. Yes, ments. much interest from develop- Westerns or new art films in landmarks to commemorate the Hart Mansion is on the list. ers. In fact, the only bid that the old theater building once our unique history. We’ve lost Yes, Melody Ranch is on the was even remotely within the in a while.