Do they know who their voters are?

With all the uproar about increasing fees for the City of Santa Clarita’s Parks and Recreation programs to those who live outside the City’s boundaries, you’d think the candidates for City Council would be more respectful of these boundaries when littering the streets with their election campaign posters.

Of all people, this group should be the clearest on where the City boundaries start and end, yet their signs are in areas that are clearly unincorporated portions of the Santa Clarita Valley.

At issue in this election are some key items such as the use of eminent domain in the Newhall redevelopment area, reducing traffic congestion and Canyon Country improvements.

The City’s current stance on eminent domain is that they’ll use "friendly" eminent domain where possible, meaning that the property owner will negotiate a sales price with the City. The use of eminent domain to transfer ownership to the City will reduce or eliminate the owner’s tax liability for the gain on the sale of the property.

As for Canyon Country improvements, most of the Council candidates are saying that they’d like more businesses to move in that direction, and possibly even another regional mall. It’s hard to force this issue, as businesses will only move to areas where they feel that they will be successful in regards to population and demographics.

In addition, it’s impossible to compare Canyon Country to the master-planned areas of Santa Clarita, since those areas were created with a complete plan and funding in place, partially in the form of increased property tax assessments in those areas. Canyon Country residents have shown resistance to paying these additional Landscape Maintenance District assessments, yet they want to look as nice as the Valencia area where everyone has multiple assessments on their property tax bills already. Nothing’s free, and the residents in Canyon Country are wanting to replicate the Valencia look and feel without paying the tariff… sorry, guys, it’s not gonna work that way!

Click here for a summary of the candidate’s stances on key issues per the Daily News.

If you live within the City’s boundaries, please be sure to vote and do your research before voting. Don’t fall into the trap of just voting for a familiar name or a pretty face!

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