Santa Clarita Ca

The hills surrounding Valencia High School are alive with the sounds of buzz saws, jackhammers and bulldozers. Across the street, a new red-tile-roof subdivision is rising along the banks of San Francisquito Creek, complete with meandering walkways, landscaped greenbelts and a "village recreation center." Workers are also putting the finishing touches on upscale hilltop homes that offer commanding views of the Santa Clarita Valley.

A Santa Clarita councilman's shout-out at a recent anti-illegal immigration rally that he is a "proud racist" has ignited an angry war of words in a suburban community over whether the longtime civic leader is a hatemonger who should be driven from office or a patriot unafraid to speak out for fellow Americans. Bob Kellar, a veteran councilman and two-time mayor, said his words have been taken out of context, but he declined to offer an apology at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.

A Santa Clarita councilman's shout-out at a recent anti-illegal immigration rally that he is a "proud racist" has ignited an angry war of words in a suburban community over whether the longtime civic leader is a hatemonger who should be driven from office or a patriot unafraid to speak out for fellow Americans. Bob Kellar, a veteran councilman and two-time mayor, said his words have been taken out of context, but he declined to offer an apology at a City Council meeting Tuesday night.

For years, Old Town Newhall in Santa Clarita has been wrangling with an identity crisis. Its history is entwined in the Wild West -- oil, gold and ranching -- but the city of Santa Clarita is redeveloping, encouraging the proliferation of new bicycle shops and boutiques on Main Street (also known as San Fernando Road) and hoping to turn the area into an arts and entertainment district. Just a few weeks back, Santa Clarita's Festival of Arts ( www.streetartfest.com) took over the area, strong evidence of a new direction.

The city of Santa Clarita has the second-lowest crime rate in the entire United States, according to FBI statistics. During the first six months of 1992, the small city in northern Los Angeles County had the second-lowest crime rate of any city with a population of more than 100,000, the FBI reported Monday. Only the town of Amherst in upstate New York had slightly lower midyear crime rates, an analysis of FBI statistics shows.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to settle a lawsuit challenging the county's rejection of a massive gravel quarry near Santa Clarita. A lawyer for Cemex Inc., which hopes to create the mine, called the settlement a victory. But its effect on the project remained unclear: The settlement must still be approved by a federal judge, and no details will be made public until then.

A federal judge approved plans Monday for a mine that would extract 56.1 million tons of sand and gravel from a canyon near Santa Clarita, despite the objections of environmental groups and local governments. Opponents say the project would adversely affect air quality, traffic and water supplies in north Los Angeles County. The decision was hailed as a victory by Brian Mastin, spokesman for the Mexican concrete company Cemex, which holds the federal mineral rights for the project.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and firefighters used an aerial ladder and chain-breaking tools Friday night to remove tree sitter John Quigley from the old oak tree he has occupied since Nov. 1. Holding a folded American flag in one hand, Quigley smiled and waved to bystanders as he rode the ladder to the ground. Sheriff's deputies said he would be escorted off the property, but not arrested. "I said they'd have to come and drag me out, and they did," Quigley said. "It's not over yet ...

A light plane made a safe emergency landing Monday afternoon on the busy southbound lanes of Interstate 5 in Santa Clarita after apparently developing engine trouble, officials and a witness said. Pilot Chad Wadsworth, 28, was not injured. The plane did not strike any vehicles and did not appear to have been damaged by the landing. The California Highway Patrol said there were no reports of injuries, but rubber-neckers did tie up traffic in the area for about an hour.

Newly separated from her husband and searching for emotional support, Sandie Plush was relieved to learn about a Santa Clarita organization offering help for single mothers. She and her four children were still adjusting to their two-bedroom apartment after moving from a 5,800-square-foot home that had had enough space for a live-in nanny. Their tight budget meant few goodies for the youngsters.

In August, Kevin and Danet Davis got a letter from the City of Santa Clarita informing them that the yard and parkway in front of their house were not up to city standards. The dirt and weeds had to go -- and preferably be replaced by vegetation or other landscaping -- and the city gave the Davises two months to make adjustments. But unlike cities that merely issue citations, Santa Clarita also offered a helping hand.

ABOUT 35 miles northwest of downtown L.A., encircled by the Santa Susana, San Gabriel and Sierra Pelona mountains, lies Los Angeles County's fourth-largest city, Santa Clarita. Rather than follow the typical pattern of spreading outward from a central starting point, Santa Clarita was incorporated in 1987 as the union of several existing, separate communities, all of which had been part of the former Rancho San Francisco. These include the towns of Canyon Country, an equestrian haven; Newhall, where many silent films were shot; Saugus, site of an infamous train robbery in 1929; and Valencia, a planned community developed in the 1960s.

Hundreds of thousands of drivers daily thread their way through the spaghetti-like interchange of Interstate 5 and the Antelope Valley Freeway, and some may well recall its spectacular collapse in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Few, however, probably are aware of the six-year development battle raging over the jagged ridgelines cradled between the intersecting freeways at the Newhall Pass.

Much of the new development in Los Angeles and Orange counties is occurring on land the state says is at high risk for wildfires, according to records and interviews. With little raw land available in flat areas, builders are planning huge tracts of homes on or just below the rough hillsides that fringe the region's metropolitan areas. Hillside living is popular with home buyers because of the sweeping views, country feel and proximity to nature.

Prosecutors grappled on Wednesday with what charges, if any, to file against the 10-year-old boy who admitted he set a fire last week that charred more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes in northern Los Angeles County. On the ranch northeast of Santa Clarita where the boy's parents helped care for horses, people who knew him said he had no history of problems and was distraught about the destruction.

The effort to expand Santa Clarita's largest hospital has generated controversy for months, with residents packing public hearings and council meetings stretching past midnight. Now it has spurred calls for the city to establish a formal code of ethics, something already in place in the county's largest cities.

Concerned about hazardous materials in cell phones, computers and televisions, the city of Santa Clarita is proposing a program to reduce the amount of electronic equipment its residents send to the landfill. Under the proposal, a waste hauler would collect discarded electronic items free of charge and take them to a recycling plant. The collection would take place in the weeks after Christmas, a prime time to cast off old electronic products.

Sheriff's deputies in Santa Clarita are trying to enlist residents in the fight against a growing gang problem. Gang activity in the suburban region is still minuscule compared to other communities in Los Angeles County, but "it's like a cancer that'll kill you unless you catch it early," Sheriff's Sgt. Wes McBride said Friday.

THE sun was setting in Happy Valley. Neighbors chatted with Paul Pedevilla, who was showing off a photo of his puppy. Two boys played with popguns. A toddler, father in tow, wailed as he wandered about the cul-de-sac. A few feet away, an army of actors, directors, grips and gaffers prepared to shoot a shouting match between two mothers over their teenagers' romance. There were lights, camera, action -- and nobody in the huddle around Pedevilla, a TV location scout, batted an eye.

Perchlorate contaminating the Santa Clarita Valley's underground water supply is to be cleaned up under an estimated $100-million settlement of a federal lawsuit against former and present owners of a shuttered munitions and fireworks factory announced Wednesday. The suit was filed by four area water agencies in November 2000 against Whittaker Corp., Remediation Financial Inc.