City and Communities, Los Angeles County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Code: 91350, 91380, 91383, 91390
Santa
Clarita is an inland bedroom city off Interstate 5. Many new homes and more
coming. One of fastest growing communities in county. Population 177,045. Location of Six Flags Magic Mountain. www.mccormacks.com
Median age
of residents is 33. Under 18 years, 30 percent. Over 55 years, 14 percent. Many
young families.
Click for regional or detailed map
Following
World War II, veterans poured into the San Fernando Valley. Miles upon miles of
farmland were turned to tract housing. The boom continued into the 1970s when
the Valley started to run out of land. The Valley also attracted many
industries, foremost defense and entertainment, and this meant local jobs.
Meanwhile,
the freeways were extended and improved. The San Fernando Valley is ringed by
hills and mountains that often trap or slow the circulation of the air —
smog.
Just over
the ridge were five small communities — Saugus, Newhall, Valencia,
Sulphur Springs and Canyon Country — that offered country living and
cleaner air and with the new freeways and the Valley jobs an endurable commute.
More
people settled in the communities. Developers responded, building large
master-planned neighborhoods with wide internal roads that moved traffic
quickly to freeway ramps. The projects, at their inception, allotted land for
schools, parks and shopping centers, used walls and clever layouts to keep
arterial traffic away from residential streets, and, compared to the 1950s and
1960s tracts, did a better job of making suburbia pleasing and inviting. www.mccormacks.com
As the
population increased, arguments over local control and pace of development
surfaced — an old story in fast-growing towns — and in 1987 the
five communities incorporated themselves into the City of Santa Clarita.
Because
they had been around so long, however, the communities retained their
identities. If asked, many residents will say they live in Saugus, Valencia or
Newhall. The last two — Sulphur Springs and Canyon Country — are not
as well known as the first three. The media also uses Valencia, Saugus,
Newhall, etc.
Accurately
speaking, however, these are no longer towns or communities. They are
neighborhoods of Santa Clarita. The city government does the planning,
contracts with the sheriff for police protection, repairs the streets,
maintains the parks, and sponsors many of the recreation and cultural
activities.
The school
districts, which predated the city, are still intact. Children attend schools
in the Newhall elementary district or the Saugus elementary district or the
Sulphur Springs elementary district. They then move up to the William S. Hart
High School District, which covers grades 7-12 for Santa Clarita and for
outlying unincorporated neighborhoods, such as Stevenson Ranch and Castiac.
Hart, a
star of the silent screen, played the steely-eyed hero who always got the girl
and vanquished the villains. He owned a local ranch, part of which has been set
aside as a park with a museum. www.mccormacks.com
Santa
Clarita also benefited from other forces. Its homes, many of them two-story,
four-bedroom, were often priced cheaper than homes in other communities in L.A.
County. By the 1970s and 1980s, many Valley and L.A. residents had built up a
fair amount of equity in their homes. They took this equity and bought into
Santa Clarita. Many of the new residents were middle-class professionals, often
with young families.
School
scores generally follow demographics. Many Santa Clarita schools are scoring in
the 70th, 80th and 90th percentile, among the top 30 percent in the state.
In the
1990s or early 2000s, all the districts passed construction-renovation bonds.
Many schools, however, are on year-round schedules, an economy measure that
some parents dislike. See Schools.
The school
districts have turned to developers to provide construction funds, with the
result that, through Mello-Roos fees, buyers of the new homes will pay more for
schools (and for sewers, parks and libraries). The bigger the house, the higher
the bill, in some sections, over $6,000 annually.
Santa
Clarita has a community college, the College of the Canyons, enrollment about
16,500. The community college district won a bond, $82 million, to renovate and
add classrooms and upgrade science and health education labs. www.mccormacks.com
The city
also has a private college — The Masters' College — and an arts
school founded by Walt Disney, The California Institute of Arts, which has a
concert hall and programs in art, film, dance and theater. The arts college,
which enjoys continued support from the Disney family, has given Santa Clarita
a favorable — but impossible to measure — reputation as being
supportive of the arts.
Santa
Clarita, compared to cities with over 100,000 people, usually posts a crime
rate among the lowest in the U.S. Three homicides in 2005, two in 2004. Counts
for previous years are 3, 6, 3, 0, 2, 6, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4, 0. See Crime.
In the
1960s, Santa Clarita built 9,700 units, in the 1970s, about 11,700 and in the
1980s, 18,900. In the last decade, housing starts numbered about 10,800. The
great majority of the housing follows modern tract designs but the old towns
have cottages and bungalows and Sulphur Springs, with its horse estates, goes
way up the scale.
The state
in 2008 counted 58,714 housing units: 36,160 single homes, 6,937 single
attached, 13,377 multiples, 2,240 mobiles.
Santa
Clarita is spread over flats, hills and mesas. Many homes have views of
countryside. Big city, about the size of San Francisco. www.mccormacks.com
Country
atmosphere. Summers hot but the heat dry; low humidity. In spring, winter and
fall the weather mellows but because the countryside is dry, the feel of desert
is strong. Clean town. Utility lines buried in many neighborhoods. Greenbelt
around city.
Home
construction almost always going on. Many arguments over development. One
development, called Newhall Ranch, will bring in 21,000 homes and apartments.
It is going in west of Santa Clarita, near Highway 126, outside city limits.
Four
libraries, hike-bike trails, bookstores, movie plexes. Dozen parks plus
regional parks. Sports center with gym, pool and skate park. Many kids' sports,
activities. Little League baseball v. popular. High-school football draws
crowds; games sometimes held at community college, which has more seats than
high schools. Little theater. Concerts in park. The community college has many
activities and classes open to the public and in the summer offer science and
other classes for the kids.
Restaurants. Golf courses. Hyatt hotel.
Regional mall. Costco. Home Depot, Wal-Marts. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.
Buses and freeway, I-5, to jobs in L.A.
and San Fernando Valley. About 35 miles to downtown L.A. Metrolink (commute
rail), three stations in town. More buses added in 2006. Office parks, which
means local jobs. SeeCommute.
Chamber of
commerce (661) 702-6477.
•
Enrollments are declining at a few of the older schools. This sometimes leads
to changes in attendance boundaries. www.mccormacks.com
• See
profiles on Stevenson Ranch and Castaic. Thousands of homes to be built in
these nearby communities.
• Under
argument, 2,500 housing units that if approved will straddle Copper Hill Drive,
near the McBean Parkway and bring in another high school. Name of
project is West Creek.
• Before
the homes went up, Santa Clarita was famed for its aromas. Many fields were
planted in onions.
• In the
talk stage, stadium for minor league baseball. Would seat 2,500.
• In music
circles, Santa Clarita is well known for its Master Chorale. The group
auditions for its members, rehearses regularly and presents three concerts a
year — classical, including madrigals, Christmas carols and Broadway
music. The chorale also sings at schools and community benefits. www.mccormacks.com
•
Air Force ROTC at two high schools.
For
orientation on cities, towns and neighborhoods of Los Angeles County, see County Overview.
City
web site: www.santa-clarita.com
