Well well, the ol’ Hartwell project surfaces in the news again with The Signal reporting that the undeveloped property it is apparently for sale.
This project did not become an utter disaster by accident. It became a disaster step by step, with a timeline that is impossible to ignore.
In March 2025, Planning Commissioner Denise Lite asked questions about a $750,000 payment tied to the demolition of a historic courthouse before the public ever had a chance to weigh in.
By April 2025, after investigation by (The Signal), it became public that Councilwoman Laurene Weste had been directly involved in those private negotiations with the developer Mr. Jason Tolleson for a $750,000 payment (for historical preservation) — a cause coincidentally championed by Weste. Public backlash ensued. The public then came to understand this was a project it was invited to watch only after the outcome was already largely shaped.
In May 2025, the City Council approved the project, sealing the fate of a designated historic courthouse once championed as being an essential part of Newhall’s history. With this vote, the council did an about face, making the courthouse suddenly “unhistoric” and the widely discussed $750,000 payment dropped to roughly $300,000, with little credible explanation. The public was left to connect the dots.
In June 2025, Weste made a motion to remove Denise Lite from Planning Commission and, in July, Lite was publically ousted from her position on the commission in a 3-2 vote by the council, with Weste leading the charge. The optics could not have been worse: The person asking questions was removed, and the project slogged forward.
By August 2025, as The Signal reported, the project returned to the council, this time requesting a major expansion from 78 to 98 units. Two council member recusals (Weste and Jason Gibbs) left just three members (Marsha McLean, Bill Miranda and Patsy Ayala) to vote on it. Weste decided to recuse herself from then voting on Hartwell — long after the framework of the deal had already been set in motion by her — claiming she had done “nothing improper.”
That Aug. 26, 2025, City Council meeting then devolved into open dysfunction, with then-Mayor Bill Miranda delivering a public outburst previously unseen in City Hall history. It looked like Wrestlemania.
The City Council approved the project with only three votes. At that point, any claim that this project was a result of a careful, intelligent, deliberative process was beyond credulity, and The Signal published a “Hartwell Autopsy” (editorial) strongly criticizing the project.
And while all the mayhem unraveled, the real life consequences were becoming permanent. The “historic” courthouse was demolished. A piece of Santa Clarita’s history was permanently erased. The Rafters Alcoholics Anonymous group — a decades-old functioning support community responsible for saving lives and souls — was summarily displaced with nary a consideration. (Local radio station) KHTS was caught in the middle, squeezed by the developer and the city as a property owner on the development site.
These were not and are not theoretical impacts. They were real, immediate, and irreversible.
Now, in April 2026, the final chapter of this horror novel writes itself: the Hartwell project is suddenly up for sale. Which raises even more questions.
So to all of the above, I say, “Bravo, council!”
After the backroom negotiations, the shifting shady financial terms, the removal of a dissenting commissioner, the political infighting on the council, and the demolition of a historic structure — what do we, your constituents, have? An empty lot surrounded by fencing. Yep — that’s it. A giant piece of dirt.
This is not simply a failed development. It is a wholesale failure of leadership from beginning to bloody end.
It reflects a pattern: closed-door negotiations, questions dismissed, public opinion ignored, dissent removed, and consequences borne by this community.
Nice going, City Council. Hand yourselves signed proclamations and go cut a red ribbon for your photo-op at the corner for the worst development deal in city history. That seems to be all you are good at.
Kathy Smith
Saugus
