Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda joined KHTS on-air Tuesday morning to discuss what Santa Clarita residents can expect in the coming year, which includes three major projects and how the COVID-19 pandemic may impact them.
Miranda joined KHTS News Director Michael Brown live on-air Tuesday morning two weeks after being named the next mayor for the City of Santa Clarita for the year of 2021, becoming the first Latino to hold the position.
“I felt it right away,” Miranda said. “I don’t have any more legislative power than anybody else, I’m a council member, just like the other four council members. We’re all equal, but the mayor is the front, and (…) the face of the council, and has an obligation to lead and help influence the council in the direction that he or she may want it to go.”
For 2021, this direction includes the completion of three major projects: the Canyon Country Community Center, the new Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, and the renovation of the Valencia Ice Station.
“The big one, the crown jewel, if you will, is the Canyon Country Community Center,” Miranda said. “That’s going to be just a fantastic place and that’s going to be a place where everybody can go and recreate. So whether you’re five years old, or 50 years old, or 90 years old, there’s something for everybody at the Canyon Country Community Center.”
Once completed, officials say that the center will offer a gymnasium, computer technology, arts and crafts, community and fitness rooms, an open turf play area, flexible outdoor spaces for events, playground, walkway, landscaping and a demonstration kitchen to be used for teaching.
Phase three of the new community center is expected to be completed by the end of March.
“You’re going to love it,” Miranda said. “You’re going to love the location, you’re going to love the grounds, you’re going to love the building and everything that’s in the building.”
Meanwhile, the new Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station in Canyon Country is also set to be completed in 2021, giving law enforcement better resources to serve a growing community.
“We have an antiquated Sheriff’s station that was built in 1969 for a population of 80,000 that now has to serve a population of almost 300,000 in the valley,” Miranda said.
See Related: Bill Miranda Named Santa Clarita Mayor For 2021
The new facility off of Golden Valley Road and Centre Pointe Parkway is expected to encompass more than 40,000 square feet, including a generator, detention facility and helipad, which Miranda said will help deputies operate more “effectively and more efficiently.”
“By more efficiently, I’m talking about serving the public better, but also serving it at a cost that’s more reasonable than maybe what we’re having to pay now per deputy,” he said.
Officials expect the station to be completed by the second quarter of 2021.
While both of these projects have been under construction since 2019, a third key project for the City of Santa Clarita began much more recently, when the Santa Clarita City Council voted to purchase the Valencia Ice Station.
“What we’re doing is we’re fixing it up, and converting a part of it into a conference center that can be used by the entire community,” Miranda said.
In August, the City purchased the two-story, 92,751 square-foot building, along with 4.39 accompanying acres of land, for $14.2 million after the station closed in March due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So think of it as an event center, ice skating center, a combination of both,” Miranda said. “That’s going to happen, we’re hoping it’ll happen late first quarter, but it might not be until second quarter.”
The exact completion dates on all three of these projects are ultimately dependent on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. While Los Angeles County has seen record numbers of cases, deaths and hospitalizations in the last month, the arrival of two different vaccines has given some people hope.
“We do think ahead, we do dream ahead,” Miranda said. “So if things go well, and by well I mean that the pandemic slows down in the first quarter and maybe even goes away by the end of the second quarter, by the summer, then I think we’ll be in pretty good shape.”
In addition to these three key projects, Miranda is also set to chair the Human Relations Roundtable, an advisory body that he says was formed in response to racial justice protests that were held in Santa Clarita during May and June.
“We have taken an inner look at ourselves as a city council, as a city staff, and as a community,” Miranda said. “We’ve basically said, ‘Okay, we think we’re doing great, but a segment of the community thinks we could be better,’ and so we’re reaching out and listening to them.”
To hear the full interview, check out the video above or click here.
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