Seco Canyon

Citing the need for local planning and more law enforcement, residents of the Seco Canyon area are considering annexing to the city of Santa Clarita. Beginning this weekend, residents of the area north of Copperhill Drive will mount a petition drive to gauge support for joining the city, said Santa Clarita spokeswoman Gail Foy. The 500-acre area includes about 1,600 houses, she said. If the area joins the city, it will be the 10th to do so since Santa Clarita was incorporated in 1987.

Progress in this booming construction zone is heard before it is seen. It begins in the predawn darkness with the low growl of engines warming, then erupts into a roar as dozens of giant yellow earth graders, backhoes and bulldozers launch into a synchronized march, gnawing at the straw-colored earth. Dwarfed by the vastness of the land and finally illuminated by daybreak, the machines snake like Tonka Toys in a conga line, redefining the landscape of San Francisquito Canyon.

Progress in this booming construction zone is heard before it is seen. It begins in the predawn darkness with the low growl of engines warming, then erupts into a roar as dozens of giant yellow earth graders, backhoes and bulldozers launch into a synchronized march, gnawing at the straw-colored earth. Dwarfed by the vastness of the land and finally illuminated by daybreak, the machines snake like Tonka Toys in a conga line, redefining the landscape of San Francisquito Canyon.

Having outgrown its Placerita Canyon home of the past 30 years, the city's largest Protestant church will move next week into a larger, more modern facility near Seco Canyon. Grace Baptist Church, which typically draws more than 4,500 worshipers to its six weekly services, is finally ready to move to the site it purchased more than seven years ago, said the Rev. David Leathers, family life pastor at the church. The new location is a 23-acre hillside parcel at 22833 W. Copper Hill Road in Saugus.

Arroyo Seco is undoubtedly the best-known canyon in Southern California. It's the site of the Rose Bowl and has the dubious distinction of hosting California's first freeway, the Pasadena. But the 10 miles of civilized urban canyon bear little resemblance to the 10 miles of rugged mountain arroyo, which begins near the north slope of Mt. Wilson.

Having outgrown its Placerita Canyon home of the past 30 years, the city's largest Protestant church will move next week into a larger, more modern facility near Seco Canyon. Grace Baptist Church, which typically draws more than 4,500 worshipers to its six weekly services, is finally ready to move to the site it purchased more than seven years ago, said the Rev. David Leathers, family life pastor at the church. The new location is a 23-acre hillside parcel at 22833 W. Copper Hill Road in Saugus.

Arroyo Seco Canyon, north of Pasadena, opened for tourists in 1884 when Commodore Perry Switzer established a camp there. Tourists reached the camp by stagecoach, horses and burros. They slept in tents or rough cabins and dined on trout pulled from the Arroyo Seco stream.

Power was restored early Sunday morning to about 2,000 households in Valencia after a faulty connection in an underground power line on Seco Canyon Road caused a blackout, a Southern California Edison spokesman said. It took work crews about 2 1/2 hours to trace the source of the power outage, which occurred about 7 p.m. Saturday night, spokesman David Barron said.

Two roads designed to relieve chronic traffic congestion in the Bouquet Canyon section of the Santa Clarita Valley could be completed by January, executives of Valencia Co. announced Friday. The two projects will connect Decoro Drive and McBean Parkway and are among $30 million worth of road improvements that Valencia Co. is building in conjunction with its 10,000-acre North River project. Valencia Co. is a division of Newhall Land & Farming Co., the largest developer in the valley.

A meeting of property owners and residents of the Mountainview area near Canyon Country will be held tonight to discuss pros and cons of possible annexation to Santa Clarita, city officials have announced. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Mountainview Park, situated on Seco Canyon Road north of Copperhill Drive. This is the second meeting addressing annexation, which has been proposed by some residents, city officials said. Residents are invited to ask questions and to express concerns.

Citing the need for local planning and more law enforcement, residents of the Seco Canyon area are considering annexing to the city of Santa Clarita. Beginning this weekend, residents of the area north of Copperhill Drive will mount a petition drive to gauge support for joining the city, said Santa Clarita spokeswoman Gail Foy. The 500-acre area includes about 1,600 houses, she said. If the area joins the city, it will be the 10th to do so since Santa Clarita was incorporated in 1987.

Arroyo Seco is undoubtedly the best-known canyon in Southern California. It's the site of the Rose Bowl and has the dubious distinction of hosting California's first freeway, the Pasadena. But the 10 miles of civilized urban canyon bear little resemblance to the 10 miles of rugged mountain arroyo, which begins near the north slope of Mt. Wilson.

An eight-month, $350,000 contract for an economic assessment of the proposed Devil's Gate Multi-Use Project was awarded Tuesday to Brown and Caldwell Consulting Engineers of Pasadena. The 250-acre site is in the Arroyo Seco Canyon and includes the Devil's Gate Reservoir and land surrounding the Rose Bowl. The city hopes to join with other agencies to create a water storage area, park and nature refuge.

City officials received $1.125 million Wednesday from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as part of a $3-million payment to remove pollutants from four city-owned water wells in Arroyo Seco Canyon. A 1986 engineering study funded jointly by the city and JPL found that the scientific agency was "the most likely source" of the pollution, which occurred during the 1940s and 1950s through disposal of solvents and other cleaning materials.