BIGGER STREET SIGNS CONSIDERED FOR CITY.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

Street addresses in Santa Clarita won't change but some street signs could become more visible as part of an effort by the City Council to make it easier to find your way around town.

The council on Tuesday asked city staff to look into the cost of new larger signs that would list block numbers with arrows underneath street names.

That wasn't what Councilman Carl Boyer had in mind when he proposed changing the five-digit addresses in the city to three or four numerals. Boyer said he wanted to change a system that is based on Santa Clarita's distance from downtown Los Angeles.

``I wanted to make it simpler, to get people to think of us separately and to prepare the Santa Clarita Valley to be its own county,'' Boyer said. ``I'm not really disappointed. I knew it was a long shot.''

Current addresses have five digits because they are based on the Los Angeles County numbering system. The proposal on the council agenda would have reduced it to three digits.

Though changing addresses appeared to be a simple action, utility companies serving Santa Clarita complained that it would cost them millions of dollars to convert databases, Boyer said.

Residents also complained, saying that trusts would no longer be valid because documents would show outdated addresses, Boyer said. But attorneys for the city said those fears were not warranted.

``All the objections, except from the utilities, didn't really hold water,'' Boyer said. ``We would have minimized the inconvenience.''

Los Angeles County officials changed addresses across the Santa Clarita Valley in the late 1960s, Mayor Jan Heidt said. Boyer's proposal would have converted the system back.

``It may not be a doable thing, but good things may come out of it,'' Heidt said.