In all the debate about the City’s plans (some would say dreams) for Main Street and Old Town Newhall, it’s easy to overlook that other older areas of Newhall are changing, albeit at a slower pace and in a less organized way.
Newhall is unique in the SCV due to a couple of factors. There is what I would call “old money” in Newhall: wealthy families who have called this part of town home for decades. These people live south of Lyons and in the hills overlooking Santa Clarita.
In other areas, Newhall is overwhelmingly Latino and the homes and buildings are 50-60 years old.
Yet in other parts of Newhall, there is what I would call standard suburban housing, except that these homes weren’t built under some kind of master plan, but were laid out on individual, often rectangular, parcels. You know, the way homes used to be organized and built.
What all these areas share in common is that they are built on much larger parcels than you see in Valencia and other areas of Santa Clarita. And, in some neighborhoods, due to age, the homes and their land are comparatively cheap. And finally, very few of these neighborhoods have covenant restrictions or home owners associations.
This combination of no HOAs, cheaper prices and larger plots has lead to some interesting construction in Newhall in just the last year.
For instance, on Chestnut Street, where Bermite workers in the 1940s lived, a home twice the size of other homes is being built on a large plot of land. The result is striking; after single story house upon single story house, one comes upon a two story house in a completely different architectural style. Cynics would call this type of house a “McMansion” in that its design, size, look, and architecture doesn’t fit into the older neighborhood.
Just five minutes away by car on Maple Street, a different style of home was recently torn down and rebuilt. In this older, more wealthy section of Newhall, one finds many ranch-style homes built on huge lots. In 2007, an owner of one of these lots decided to tear down his aging 70s ranch-style home and build something completely, utterly different from anything in Newhall, perhaps Santa Clarita.
The new home almost looks like a trendy restaurant or perhaps a contemporary museum. It too doesn’t fit in with its neighbors, but there’s no HOA or covenants in this part of Newhall either. And like the Chestnut Street home, this striking house sits on a large plot of land.
Less striking but also interesting is that aging homes all over Newhall are being rebuilt. Last year, two homes on Cherry Street were demolished to their frames. In one case, a large Spanish style ranch house was built; in the other, a brand new cottage-style home was built on a huge plot of land.
And on Apple Street, a property owner there recently got approval from the City’s Planning Commission to tear down the single-family structure there and build four condominiums.
So what’s all this mean for Newhall? My guess is that in five to ten years, we may see Newhall become quite diverse, architecturally speaking. I don’t think one can say Newhall is undergoing a gentrification phase at this point, but it’s possible that unique attributes of Newhall are attracting buyers with money to rebuild and more diverse interests.