CITY LOOKS AHEAD TO 20TH YEAR; OFFICIALS PLAN VISION OF FUTURE.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

The city hasn't even reached its teen years yet, and it's already looking forward to 20.

Santa Clarita has had an extended 10th birthday party this year, and it looks like the culmination will be in a plan called Share the Vision III - The Next Decade.

City staff members have already begun preparing to take residents' input on what they think Santa Clarita should look like at its 20th birthday party.

For staff members who have been with the city awhile, creating a vision plan is a familiar routine.

Last time city leaders envisioned the future, they saw more parks and open space, even safer communities and activities for children, City Manager George Caravalho said. Today, the city can say it reached those goals.

``If you look back, in the old plan we said we wanted to build parks - specific parks. So we built Creekside (Park in Newhall), we bought central park land, we bought civic center land,'' Caravalho said. ``We wanted open space, and now the Woodland area is 3,000 acres. We wanted to be a family friendly community, and we have tons of children's programs.''

The goal this time around is to include as many people from varying interests, backgrounds and communities, Mayor Clyde Smyth said. That way, the city's vision for the future won't represent the vision of the usual group of city activists, he said.

``I know what I'd like to see, but how do the rest of the people feel? How do my neighbors feel? How do the people of Valencia feel?'' Smyth said. ``So we want a system where we can get information and opinions from a broad base - from schools, from seniors, from everyone.''

Councilwoman Jill Klajic agreed that the new plan should be examined by people with fresh perspectives, since past discussions about the city's future have often turned into battles between the pro-business group and the activist-preservationist group.

``It would be nice to have new people, citizens, who can feel that they're part of the city's decisions for the future,'' Klajic said.

Klajic said she would also like to see residents critique the city's work and decide for themselves whether Santa Clarita has become the community it set out to be when the 1990 and 1995 Share the Vision plans were drafted.

Indeed, Caravalho said he has already made the critique a priority for the process. City staff members will begin this month on the project. A draft of the vision plan could be complete by January or February, when it will be available for public review, he said.

In the end, residents may decide on a specific plan for the Santa Clara River, Caravalho said. They may want a volleyball court in the sand, for instance, or a quiet nature preserve where residents can bird-watch, or an exercise course. They may even want all of those features in different areas of the city, he said.

Others may want a better shopping center with a Nordstrom department store or other upscale shops, Caravalho said.

Hopefully, the views can be united. As Smyth pointed out, often residents want the same things but in different places.

``People want more roads. And there's no question we need more roads. But where?'' Smyth said. ``The answer will always be `not near me.' ''

In the coming months, council members can add their voices to the citywide view of Santa Clarita's future.

Smyth's priority is a plan for annexing more land into the city until the entire valley is part of Santa Clarita.

``The tax money being generated at (the Valencia Marketplace) across the freeway is money being spent by people who live in the city. That money goes to the county and is spent in Claremont or Long Beach,'' Smyth said. ``We're all tied together. We're tied economically, through our schools and through where we go to church.''

For Klajic, the city shouldn't look much different in the future than it does now.

``I just want to see some of the natu`ral beauty of the valley preserved. I want to see the high standards of the schools maintained. I want to see the high standards of safety maintained,'' Klajic said. ``You can't do that with just growing rapidly with no limits. I think we need to be always clear on what we want to keep.''