APPRAISERS EYE PROPERTY IN DOWNTOWN NEWHALL GOAL IS TO CONSOLIDATE LAND FOR LIBRARY AND OTHER IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS, CITY OFFICIAL SAYS.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE

Staff Writer

NEWHALL -- Appraisers are sizing up real estate in downtown Newhall that the city may want to snap up for redevelopment.

Some of the properties eyed last week on Spruce Street are a stone's throw from an old gas station the city bought and later demolished. The proximity of that site could boost the city's efforts to buy land and jump-start redevelopment in the area.

"We're trying to consolidate a portion of the catalyst block for the planned library and other new uses," said Chris Price, an assistant city engineer overseeing the redevelopment project.

No large-scale projects have been submitted officially since the Santa Clarita City Council adopted the specific plan for downtown Newhall in December 2005. The plan cost $1 million and the city has budgeted $7 million for the first phase of improvements.

The city says it would pay market rate for five buildings on Spruce, a cul-de-sac parallel to San Fernando Road, bracketed by Lyons Avenue and Eleventh Street.

The appraisal is complete for 24519 Spruce, owned and occupied by White Light Chiropractic.

"It's always been our intention to remain in that location," said White Light's owner, who's owned the building for more than two decades. "It's our desire to retire there and hand off our practice to another physician and retain that property as rental income."

White Light has not heard from the city since the appraisal.

Results from on-site inspections and market data comparisons should be made public by mid-June, said Barbara Stoll, the city's acquisition specialist.

One tenant applauds redevelopment but says she wouldn't have invested thousands of dollars improving her space had she known it could be lost so soon.

"The permit alone was about $2,000 and it took us four or five months to go through the process for city permits -- and that was only two years ago," said Jennifer Bradley, who owns Paws for Fun, an animal day-care business, at 24515 Spruce.

Bradley understands she will receive some relocation assistance from the city but moving isn't that simple.

"Our business is a tough one to relocate because not all landlords want dogs in their buildings and not all neighbors or businesses want dogs around," she said.

Two properties called "potentially historic" in the specific plan are being handled differently.

Excluded from appraisal is a building owned by the American Legion Newhall-Saugus. Assessor's records show it was built in 1941.

The building occupied by Antique Flower Garden that once housed a jail is being appraised, but Price said the city plans to preserve it "one way or another."

City officials have said they would invoke eminent domain only as a last resort.

Last year the city bought two properties on San Fernando Road: the Union 76 gas station property at Lyons, for about $840,000, and the Moore's Submarine Sandwich property at Fifth Street, for $760,000.

Blocks away, the first new single-family home proposed within the specific plan area is under review, however plans filed recently for the manufactured wood home do not yet meet the area's strict architectural standards, Price said. The one-story home would sit on a vacant 6,250-square-foot lot on Arch Street, between Third and Fourth streets.

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