The Santa Clarita City Council approved several staff recommendations Tuesday for helping Main Street in Newhall after an Aug. 24 fire ravaged most of a city block.
The fire started at the south side, according to the investigators, stopping at the Canyon Theatre Guild and burning north until firefighters got it under control at the former site of El Trocadero — but not before that burned to the ground as well.
While a handful of locations lost everything in the fire, including the Care Tucker boutique and the Newhall Refinery restaurant, the aftermath has also been devastating for the neighboring businesses, according to those still operating.
Dani Ibarra, the owner of Yoga Yoga on Main, spoke at Tuesday’s City Council meeting about how, after the fire, unfounded concerns about air quality and fewer locations have kept people away.
“I’ve been cutting expenses, canceling events. In the four years that I’ve been the owner, I’ve never seen my daily numbers so low,” Ibarra said. “Most of my classes are operating at 30% capacity, which is unsustainable.”
The City Council’s plan discussed Tuesday hopes a few reminders about what’s on Main Street, as well as a 6-foot-high wall to wrap around the wreckage, which can also be a canvas for local art, will give businesses a “shot in the arm,” as one business owner put it Tuesday.
“I think everybody basically wants the same thing,” said Mayor Laurene Weste, in a phone interview Wednesday. “We want our Old Town back, and we want it back sooner rather than later. And as I said, time here is really critical because people will start to move away from going there if improvements don’t happen.”
The City Council unanimously approved a handful of efforts aimed at bringing more people to Main Street.
The first element was $40,000 in support authorized by a “letter of agreement” with the Old Town Newhall Association, which would fund, under OTNA’s direction, a shop local campaign to raise awareness about the remaining businesses.
Robert Younkin, a business owner and chair of OTNA, called the proposed marketing fund “transformative” to the nonprofit, in a phone conversation prior to the meeting.
“It’s going to take a lot of work from a lot of people for a very long time to bring Old Town back,” he said. “But you know, those types of shots in the arms give a lot of these business owners that you know feel maybe isolated … to where they say, ‘Wow, maybe if we are working together and everyone pitched in, like we really can do something.’ And so, I think psychologically, I think it’s very, very valuable.”
The more expensive effort approved Tuesday was the art wall, which is intended to provide a beautification effort and cover up the burn area.
The wall, to be sectioned in panels, “would have artwork centered around an Old Town Newhall theme,” according to the city’s proposal, which would cover the frontage for the fire-affected locations on Main and Market streets, as well as Railroad Avenue.
The decor of the wall would be designed by an ad hoc committee consisting of the mayor, mayor pro tem and two arts commissioners, to evaluate the selection of art for the wall, according to Tuesday’s discussion.
The city staff proposed three options for the wall: a 300-foot section for just Main Street for $130,000; another option for 440 feet of fence for $187,000, to cover up Main and Market; and the council chose the longest-fence option, 715 feet, to cover all three sides, which was estimated to cost $313,000.
The City Council also approved a temporary fix prior to the fence’s construction, which is holiday-themed decorative screening to be installed over the existing construction fencing, for Light Up Main Street through the holiday season.
City Manager Ken Striplin also said he’s heard from business owners that adding more events to the Senses block party would help, as would moving it a little farther north on the street, to help businesses closer to the Newhall Library.
The City Council also is looking at adding two months to the beginning of the Senses run, which would be March and April, and potentially moving it around, in order to spread the support.
For Louise Castaldo, co-owner of Eighth and Rail, the relief is much-needed.
Even though she’s at the other end of the street from the fire, she said Tuesday she was able to calculate her business’ numbers are down 17% this year over last, looking at the same six-week period since the fire.
“It’s just kind of like the whole area has been deflated. You know what I mean? Like the buzz was going. We had really started to become a destination area,” she said Tuesday, prior to the meeting.
She said she’s also heard the air-quality rumors, which Striplin said there was no evidence of on Tuesday, and also mentioned the loss of neighbors, who helped draw people to the area, has hurt.
She thought the wall was a nice idea, but also questioned the cost, when there are other needs.
“I think the wall that they’re proposing is beautiful. I think it’s fabulous, but I don’t understand why that money and that time, that energy is being spent on something like that when we need parking, we need that thing cleaned up, we need people to see that things are happening and nothing is happening,” she said, referring to the rubble still there.
Striplin said the funds would be considered part of a major budget adjustment for fire recovery. The Senses events are supposed to add a cost of about $20,000 per event.
“I will say I think everybody starting to talk about it in the videos that are going out is helping a lot. Two nightlife places are gone,” she said, referring to Newhall Refinery and El Trocadero, which closed prior to the fire but then burned down. “But there’s still like 10 of us that are open and you know, we want to have a party. It’s still a destination place to come to.”
