CENTER DECISION DECRIED CRITIC BLAMING LOCAL POLITICS.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - When the City Council voted unanimously to build a new community center on land now occupied by a lumber company, it rejected a plan for a multipurpose event center designed to jump start the redevelopment of downtown Newhall.

As proposed by the Santa Clarita Events Co., the center was to have hosted a variety of expos, holidays events and shows that its supporters said would have drawn thousands of day-trippers to Santa Clarita and infused Old Town Newhall with new life.

Although the plan had the support of the Newhall redevelopment committee and the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, the City Council decided that the need to quickly replace the current center - housed in a rat-infested former warehouse with a leaky roof - was overwhelming.

``I'm disillusioned with our city leaders,'' said Rock Hall, who, along with partner Monty Lunde, founded the Santa Clarita Events Co. as an offshoot of their Valencia special-effects firm, Technifex. ``The proposal got swallowed up by politics.''

Hall and Lunde said their project could have been part of a long-term vision for the future of Newhall.

``Instead, the council members chose to achieve a short-term goal at the expense of the planning and commitment that redevelopment requires,'' Lunde said.

The partners have shelved their plan, saying it wouldn't work anywhere else in Santa Clarita.

``Location, location, location,'' Hall said, laughing.

Despite a years-long effort, the city's push to bring Newhall back to life has been stymied by the lack of parking along San Fernando Road and the small area of the redevelopment zone, which has made it all but impossible to create enough new tax revenue for the city to fund new business ventures.

``We really saw this as the catalyst to take redevelopment to the next level,'' Lunde said. ``It would have set the tone for Newhall and encouraged other businesses.''

The city purchased the 5-acre site now occupied by the Anawalt Lumber & Materials Co. for $2.4 million with a combination of state and federal grants to add parking spaces to the crowded Jan Heidt Metrolink Station.

The site is large enough to accommodate both the additional parking the station needs and a new 17,000-square-foot center. And most importantly, city officials said building a center on the Anawalt site will cost at least $2 million less than the other site under consideration and take only 18 months, as opposed to as long as six years.

``We couldn't have told the Latino community they're going to have to wait six years for their children to have a nice, safe place to play,'' said Mayor Frank Ferry. ``We needed to do this now.''