San Fernando Changing Hands?

[SCVHISTORY.COM] [OLD TOWN NEWHALL TODAY] [NEWHALL HISTORY]

San Fernando Changing Hands?
Runner bill would transfer ownership of a portion of San Fernando Road to the city.

By Eric Thayer
Signal Staff Writer

Saturday, August 25, 2001

tate legislation that would turn over a portion of San Fernando Road to the city of Santa Clarita could help in the city's redevelopment efforts in downtown Newhall, officials said.
    Under Assembly Bill 665, which passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, the state would hand over part of State Route 126, from Interstate 5, along Magic Mountain Parkway to the city.
    The bill would transfer ownership and maintenance, along with planning and reconfiguration rights, over to the city, which is already looking into major changes along one stretch of the road.
    Plans are in the works to redesign the portion of San Fernando that runs through downtown Newhall.
    "(The bill) would provide an opportunity for possible revisions of the street scape (that) the area didn't have before," said Mike Haviland, city economic development coordinator.
    Haviland said the city has hired a firm to begin preparing street scape plans.
    Those plans could include changing the striping and parking configuration to slow down traffic and create different parking patterns along the street.
    "This makes sense for both the city and the state," Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, who introduced the bill, said in a statement. "The state is no longer obligated for the upkeep and maintenance and the city can make road improvements without being delayed by bureaucratic red tape."
    "Up until now we've been fairly limited by the state and its rules regarding how the road needs to operate," Haviland added.
    In the past the California Transportation Department, and its predecessor the State Highway Commission, had been in charge of the section of the road, and had kept tight regulations on change for nearly 80 years.
    According to the minutes of the Newhall Chamber of Commerce from February 1923, the local Street Sign Committee met with a State Highway Commissioner representative to ask the state to allow signage across the road, which was not allowed by the state.
    In May 1923, the chamber minutes stated that the State Highway Commission "absolutely refuses to allow street signs to be placed across the boulevard" and that a member of the Street Sign Committee was then working on a plan to place signs along the sides of the road.
    In fact, it wasn't until June 2001, just in time for the Independence Day Parade in downtown Newhall, that Caltrans approved the placement of decorative banners by the city along the sides of San Fernando Road.
    "Ultimately this is a good thing for the city," said Connie Worden-Roberts, chair of the Santa Clarita Valley Transportation Alliance.
    Worden Roberts said the road currently "functions more as a city road than a state road.