Old Town Newhall Gazette, September-October 2008


		THE GAZETTE. September-October 2008 • Year 14, Number 3. City Council Takes Step To Preserve Historic Buildings. — EDITORIAL — By LEON WORDEN Editor and Publisher. If you're a regular Gazette reader, you know we emphasize Newhall's history. In this edition, you'll read about silent screen star Bill Hart, the oil workers out at Mentryville, and more. Why? Because history sets Newhall apart from other Southland communities. California's first documented gold discovery. The dawn of the state's oil industry. The earliest Western filming. Folks in Newhall did it all — some of it before there even was a "Newhall." Many other cities have to fake it if they want to create an Old Town. Not Santa Clarita. Not in Newhall. For a community so rich in history, you'd think our city elders would have passed laws long ago to prevent the demolition of historic structures that were personally financed by Bill Hart, or built out of lumber from the cabins in Mentryville. But no. Yes, the Historical Society has worked long and hard since 1975 to protect historic buildings; since cityhood in 1987, our municipal leaders have recognized the value of our history — both as a metaphor for a shared identity and as an exploitable resource in a tourism economy, Melody Ranch being perhaps the prime example. Not until August 2008, though, was something done about it. That's when the City Council unanimously approved an ordinance to prohibit the demolition of more than sixty historic and "potentially historic" structures in Santa Clarita, primarily in Newhall. The new Historic Preservation Ordinance protects certain identified properties from demolition or major alteration. What's "major" alteration? Well, Gazette readers might remember the Tex Williams house. The owners of the former home of the popular 1940s Western singer pulled a remodeling permit and literally remodeled it to the ground. There was nothing on the books to prevent it. Ironically, the new ordinance would not have saved the Tex Williams house, even though it was in Newhall, and even though its "alteration" got the ball rolling on the new ordinance. The ordinance protects only the properties that are listed in Santa Clarita's General Plan and the Downtown Newhall Specific Plan. (The Tex Williams house was on neither.) In 1991 when Santa Clarita was new, the city adopted its first General Plan — the document that guides the development of the city. General plans assess all sorts of things, from transportation infrastructure to air quality, water availability to cultural resources. Historic buildings (and non-buildings such as Beale's Cut) are considered cultural resources. Our General Plan lists thirty-three such resources, from the Hart Mansion to certain private homes. They are finally protected under the new ordinance. In truth, there are more than thirty-three historic assets in and around our city. There are some glaring omissions in the General Plan (remember, this document was drafted when the city was very young, and it is only being updated now, nearly two decades later.) Absent from the 1991 General Plan list is the American Theater, aka American Legion Hall, built by Bill Hart in Newhall in 1940. Absent is the Saugus Speedway, whose grandstands and outbuildings date to the mid-1920s when the racetrack was a rodeo grounds. Absent is the Harry Carey Ranch in Saugus (now a county park surrounded by the Tesoro Del Valle development). Yes, the Western movie star's ranch is outside city limits, but the General Plan isn't limited to the city. Mentryville and the Oak of the Golden Dream are on the list, and they're in unincorporated county territory. So the new Historic Preservation Ordinance looks beyond the General Plan and includes properties listed in the Downtown Newhall Specific Plan, the document that guides redevelopment. The Specific Plan lists properties in Newhall that are "potentially historic." In drafting the plan, the city hired a consultant who surveyed properties in Newhall and identified those that warranted further investigation to determine whether they were truly historic — such as the American Theater. (It's on the Specific Plan list.) That investigation has not yet happened, it needs to happen, and the City Council has indicated that it will happen. In the meantime, the new Historic Preservation Ordinance protects the properties that are for-sure historic (General Plan) and those that are likely to be historic (Specific Plan). The ordinance is a temporary stopgap. It expires in three years, during which time this "further investigation" is supposed to be done. The new ordinance is an important step that should save our city's most precious historic resources from the bulldozer. But it is only a first step. Nobody has ever inventoried all of the properties in Santa Clarita to assess their historical importance. It's difficult to develop policies to protect buildings if you don't know what's out there. Take a close look the next time you drive up one of our local canyon roads and you'll see there are all sorts of things with "potentially historic" value — things you may have never noticed. That is why the city has identified the need for a second phase of historic preservation. Phase Two calls for a survey of properties in Santa Clarita and the development of policies to protect the ones worth saving. If there is something on the Downtown Newhall Specific Plan list that doesn't belong there, it can come off. Conversely, if there's something of historic value in the city that hasn't been identified, hopefully it can be preserved. It will be a complicated process, and done right, it will take time. Properties must be surveyed citywide and coalesced into a report so we know what exists. Then the city will need to hold public meetings to learn what the community thinks is important to save. Should something be saved if it's a hundred years old? Is that enough of a criterion? Or must Bill Hart have slept there? The community must decide. Then the policymakers will need to meet with affected property owners. Then they will have to filter all of that information and synthesize their decisions into a set of codes that will require an environmental impact report, with lots more time for the public to comment. No, three years isn't too long if we're going to end up with an iron-clad ordinance that protects everything that is important to preserve and lets the rest go. Hopefully it can be done quicker, but it seems better to do it right than to do it fast. What needed to be done fast, the City Council did in August. Last time, we discussed a brewing rivalry among factions that had set their sights on a finite amount of redevelopment money. Some folks want to build a library. Some want to fix up Main Street. Some want to build parking structures. There isn't enough redevelopment money to do it all. It looks like the library folks and the "streetscape" folks are the winners. The city is committed to building a landmark library in Newhall at the head of Main Street and has hired consultants to meet with the community and design it (see story, Page 1). The library is probably two or three years away, but it will happen. Meantime, at least some of the streetscape will happen sooner. Come November or December, the city will put the initial streetscape project to bid. Construction should start right after the first of the year. Both sides of the block between 6th Street and Market (7th) will be redesigned, and there is a chance of doing a second block, too, from Market to 8th. Many downtown merchants want all of the streetscape installed at once, but two blocks would be good start, especially considering Main Street is only five blocks long. Two parking structures are on the drawing board, but they are part of future private commercial development projects that have not yet been submitted to the city for formal consideration. ©2008, Old Town Newhall USA. All rights reserved.

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