Council Has Full, Varied Agenda For Meeting

Hospital expansion, politicians and their signs to be discussed at meeting.

The city’s first eminent domain in the downtown Newhall area, and the fates of a business sign and a school bell practically across the street from one another are on tonight’s City Council agenda, along with a tribute to an outgoing legislator who made public safety and the protection of children her highest priority.

Other items up for discussion include playground upgrades at

Canyon Country Park , the installation of speed cushions on Benz Road in Saugus and a weight limit on Canvas Street to keep big trucks out of the neighborhood.

All those issues could pale in comparison to the second reading of the agreement voted on last Wednesday that would allow the expansion of

Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital to proceed as planned, despite the controversy it has created.

 

Retiring Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, whose 36th District seat will be assumed by Republican Steve Knight in January, will receive accolades from the council for her service to the citizens of Santa Clarita during her six years in

Sacramento . The council will also thank her husband, Senator George Runner, who was reelected to office, for introducing Senate Bill 1180, which would have revised the boundaries of the Rim of the Valley trail corridor to include Elsmere Canyon . That bill was a victim of the budget cycle overrun and was vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in September. No word on whether it will be reintroduced.

The building on Spruce Street housing the piercing studio “Just Passing Thru” is right in the way of the proposed library that the city hopes will anchor the north end of the Old Newhall Redevelopment project.  A public hearing will be held and a resolution adopted to pay up to $806,000 from Redevelopment monies to obtain the building so it can be demolished.

After the negative response to traffic diverters installed on Benz Road in September, the council is expected to move ahead with the installation of speed cushions on the road sometimes used as a short cut to Copper Hill Road.

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And in Newhall, city monies will be budgeted to remove a nonconforming sign for Newhall Square on Railroad Avenue, which was declared a public nuisance in August. Private funding is recommended for the proposed removal of the bell from the tower at Jan Heidt Metrolink Station, which was gifted to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society in 1978 and loaned to the City in 2000 to allow the artifact more public display and add to the historic fabric of the redevelopment project. The

Saugus Union School District wants the bell back for a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Saugus School . No details from the city’s paperwork on where the bell would be displayed, if at all, but estimates of city workers’ time and bell replacement costs come in at $31,000.

The Constitutionality of limiting the size, height, lighting and removal of temporary freestanding political signs on private property will be discussed and staff is recommending that the council pass an ordinance that would remove any restrictions on such signage because doing so restricts the candidate/campaign’s First Amendment rights.

A complete wrap up of the council’s decisions will be posted immediately after the meeting tonight, on hometownstation.com