BEAUTIFICATION AT THE GATES CITY PLANS CARE FOR BARRICADE.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

NEWHALL - Santa Clarita officials have begun developing a plan to beautify the area around the barricades at Valley Street and Calgrove Boulevard.

The Parks and Recreation Department will host a public meeting Wednesday to see what the formerly divided neighborhood wants done with the 1 1/2 acres of land that surround the black, wrought iron gates erected a year ago.

``We want to brainstorm with the community,'' said Elena Galvez, a management analyst with the parks department. ``We don't know what they have in mind for the area.''

The 17-year-long dispute over the closure of Valley Street at Calgrove Boulevard ended in 2001 when the Santa Clarita City Council voted 3-2 to permanently barricade the street to preserve the semirural Happy Valley neighborhood.

Officials have set aside about $100,000 for the project, which will have to continue to allow emergency vehicles to pass through the gates, Galvez said.

``We have to work with those constraints,'' Galvez said.

Homeowners in the area have requested that the money be used to make the area around and between the gates as parklike as possible, said supervising engineer Chris Price.

While some residents wanted to see the narrow, two-lane road, which links the Golden State Freeway with Lyons Avenue in downtown Newhall, opened to all traffic, others wanted to see it closed except to members of two homeowners associations.

The meeting will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at Wiley Canyon Elementary School, 24240 La Glorita Circle.

Heather MacDonald, [phone]

heather.macdonald(at)dailynews.com