Tuesday’s City Council agenda is heavy on the support for recreational activities, with Santa Clarita looking to skate ahead on its roller rink plans, pedal forward on bike-park plans and repair damage to an outdoor park pool in Valencia.
While the cost of the pool repairs is expected to be covered through the city’s insurance policy, council members also will be asked to consider an investment in a space for skating at the existing Santa Clarita Sports Complex and for a bike park in an open space area.
Roller rink
The roller rink has been in the works at City Hall for a while now, with the city approving a $356,000 contract last April for the design of the park.
The City Council is now being asked to review a request for a little over $1.8 million, which would pay for the construction of a “roller-skating rink, a basketball court, pickleball courts, volleyball court, spectator seating, an audio/disc jockey booth with a sound and light system and a designated area for special events,” according to a city staff report.
The costs include: an extension of the current design-services contract for a total of about $559,000; a contract for “constructability review” for approximately $274,000; and a transfer of $1 million from funds set aside to pay for the project.
The rink represents part of Santa Clarita 2025, and the proposal has evolved, according to city officials, from “a single-story open-sided facility to a fully enclosed multi-use facility to better meet the community’s needs.”
The rink is expected to be built behind the existing sports complex, sandwiched by that facility and a pair of basketball courts.
Blue Cloud Bike Park
Santa Clarita City Council members are also expected to consider a contract for $429,617 to pay for the design of a bike park as part of its Santa Clarita 2025 plan for new facilities.
“This project will design and create construction documents for the bike park, including trails and site amenities,” according to the City Council agenda, which sites the park in Haskell Canyon, between two tracts the city purchased as open space: Blue Cloud Open Space, a 196-acre lot acquired in August that sits on the eastern border of the other open space property, Haskell Canyon Open Space, a 526-acre lot the city acquired in June 2011.
Between the 720 or so acres, about 500 have been identified through a grant from the International Mountain Bike Association as an ideal location for a bike park, according to city officials.
“The site provides the ability to create single-track trails of varying difficulty, space for pump tracks, jump tracks, technical elements, and supporting amenities such as parking, restrooms, rest areas with shade and a repair station,” according to the City Council agenda.
The design team is also expected to look at the potential for including a sanctioned BMX track in the park, too, according to officials.
Pool repairs
The series of unprecedented storms this winter caused extensive damage throughout the city, according to officials, who noted the public pool facility at Valencia Glen Park, which is just southeast of McBean Parkway and Orchard Village Road, was no exception.
“In February 2023, the city experienced unprecedented severe winter storms causing damage within the city, specifically to the Valencia Glen Park Aquatics Building (Valencia Glen) and associated aquatics equipment, creating conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property,” according to the city’s agenda.
For a facility expected to receive about 5,000 visits during the summer, the city wanted to make sure it addressed “several needed repairs,” which included “damages including the block wall, concrete curb, the railing in the pool pump pit and the concrete panels located in the walkway outside of the building.”
In response, city staff is asking the council to affirm the city manager’s declaration of a local emergency and then authorize the funds necessary to cover the city’s $10,000 deductible in order to cover the repairs.
The city did not yet have an estimate for the total loss associated with the damage as of the publication of this story.
