PUBLIC ASKED TO MAKE PITCH; SANTA CLARITA CALLS FOR IDEAS ON RECREATIONAL COMPLEX.

Byline: Teresa Jimenez Daily News Staff Writer

The city is just about giving residents a blank sheet of paper and asking them to draw their ideal sports complex.

In its effort to gather public input on a master plan for a city-owned site in Canyon Country, Santa Clarita city officials are asking anyone interested in recreational facilities to share their ideas.

And the possibilities are endless, Parks Director Rick Putnam said.

The site may include a performing arts center, a roller hockey rink, park staff offices, a swimming pool - or anything else that residents see as a need for Santa Clarita that would fit the 20-acre site off Golden Valley Road.

``It's a wide open slate,'' Putnam said. ``Just about anything is possible. We can put up more gymnasiums, build office space, create a resource center for nonprofits.''

The city, which purchased the former Merle Norman cosmetics warehouses in late 1997, already has converted one of the buildings into a gymnasium with basketball courts, racquetball courts, offices and locker rooms. The facility is scheduled to open in November. A skate park also has been built there, and it is expected to open soon.

Two warehouses remain on the site, and one is under lease to Merle Norman for a few more months.

Still, Putnam said the structures should in no way restrict residents from developing a plan for the property. The buildings can be torn down, if need be, to create facilities for any number of recreational activities, he said.

The master plan should take only a few months to draft, Putnam said. And construction on some proposals could begin soon because the city has budgeted $900,000 toward renovation of the area, he said.

On Saturday, residents are invited to tour the site, at 26407 Golden Valley Road, and participate in a planning session from 8 a.m. to noon.

The ideas may be as varied as the people who attend.

Some may want an area for Frisbee golf, Councilwoman Laurene Weste said. Others may want a swimming pool, and yet others may want a sand lot for volleyball or an area for mountain biking. And the city could always use a community garden.

``I think it is a completely wide-open process. It's really up to the community,'' Weste said. ``We want to put in what the people really want. And it's a nice location, right in the middle of the city. There are no residential communities nearby, so if there's something noisy, this would be a good place for it.''

For Parks Commissioner Todd Longshore, the city can never get enough of playing fields. Though Santa Clarita's proposed Central Park is expected to be the center for youth field sports, the area could still use green space for flag football and other recreational activities, he said.

``I think that everyone's cramped for space,'' Longshore said. ``We just need green space.''

For more information about Saturday's meeting, call [phone].