The Santa Clarita City Council is expected Tuesday to review buildout projects for Central Park and Vista Canyon’s transit center, as well as a tax-sharing resolution for the annexation of the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District.
Vista Canyon, a development underway on the east side of the valley, will be home to a Metrolink station and a regional transit center, or bus station, that will serve as “a central core for commuter rail, local and commuter buses, bicycles and pedestrians for the surrounding communities,” according to a city staff report.
To execute its construction, the City Council is recommended to award a contract to Irvine-based RailPros for $1 million. The station, which council members approved in May 2011, and the bus station, currently out to bid under a separate contract, will consist of a grade-separated pedestrian crossing to a center track platform, about a mile of new railroad track parallel to the existing one, a new railroad bridge, sound walls and several amenities that include benches, canopies and lighting, the report read.
Increasing Central Park
The demand for additional space to play at Central Park is growing, but the actual park is not. In fact, “the city of Santa Clarita is only able to accommodate 55% of those requests” for field use, tournaments and special events that now “far exceeds the available multipurpose field space.”
The City Council will consider awarding a $543,000 design contract to local firm Psomas for the park’s buildout.
The design is set to focus on the undeveloped southwestern part of the park, which includes the addition of four full-sized multipurpose fields, sport field lighting, landscaping and irrigation, a restroom and concession building, various site furnishings, more parking and upgrades to the adjacent dog park. A lighted accessible walkway to the existing dog park from the expanded parking lot and lighting for the area will allow visitors to use the facility year-round until closing time at 10 p.m.
Sanitation District
Council members will also consider adopting a tax-sharing resolution for the annexation of the SCV Sanitation District, which offers wastewater treatment services within its service area.
“To provide wastewater treatment service to properties located outside the district’s service area, the boundary must be expanded through the annexation process,” the report read. “As part of this process, a tax-sharing resolution to provide the required funding to the district is adopted by the public agency responsible for providing services to the subject property.”
Annual tax increment percentages attributed to the annexed areas range from 0.99% to 0.04%.