SCV Talk · Archive
Nine years of the Valley’s town square · 2006–2015
SCV Talk
September 17, 2013· santaclarita.com · SantaClarita.com (SCVTalk 5.0) · Wayback capture

Where in the SCV: When is Valencia® not Valencia?

By Mike Devlin

Image not recoveredwherein-mario.gif

What is Valencia, anyway? At the risk of getting half of the details wrong, here's my understanding:

Henry Newhall set up a town near the present-day Saugus Cafe, centered around a railroad stop. It was called Newhall. After a few years, they moved the town a couple miles down the tracks, to present-day Newhall. Some people kept things humming in the old Newhall, and called it Saugus, after Henry Newhall's hometown in Massachusetts.

For decades, today's SCV was known as the Newhall-Saugus area. There were names for little pockets here and there but it hardly mattered because there was just a lot of farmland.

Post-war housing boom suburbanizes much of the valley. One cluster would eventually be called Canyon Country – a confederacy of "canyon"-named pockets of haphazard suburbanization.

Closer to Newhall, Henry Newhall's old company embarked on an ambitious project in the 1960s, a master-planned community with colleges, paseos, a hospital, golf course, shopping, schools, homes, a business park, etc.

They called it Valencia®, and over the next five decades, as the project sprawled across the west side of the valley, the name followed. That's where it gets a little tricky. Because it also became the non-trademarked name of the community itself, eventually with an eponymous high school. NL&F would try to stretch the name to places, like its Hasley Hills development in Castaic, where it didn't stick.

In recent years, the company has been bought, repacked, sold to itself, and been in and out of bankruptcy. The 50-year Valencia project is basically finished, and once those last few tracts of homes sell, the company is on to its next big thing, and their incentive for defending and expanding the Valencia name is greatly diminished (their next big thing will be Newhall Ranch, a town all its own west of the 5 and comfortably outside of city limits).

Among these final pieces are River Village (subject of a future post, no doubt) and the star of today's show: Villa Metro.

An embedded Google Map appeared here in the original post. View the original — embeds are preserved as links in this archive.

Blue: Valencia; Orange: CC; Green: Saugus; Pink: Villa Metro. View Larger map.

Villa Metro
Zip code: 91350
High school: Golden Valley, home of the Grizzness
Elementary district: Saugus
Calls itself: Valencia

Situated a mile up Soledad Canyon, CC's most essential artery, it's adjacent to a riverside trailer park and a bowling alley. It may not have the "parks" or "paseos" that Valencia is known for, but it is in walking distance from the weekend swap meet, so there's that.

The nearest eatery is the Foster's Freeze, unless the pizza parlor in the bowling alley counts. The local gathering spot is Schooners – a bar that's so defiantly "high desert" that nearly half of the square footage is given over to a quasi-legal smoking patio and the best parking spot is reserved for motorcycles.

But don't worry, Valencia® is one step ahead of you. Villa Metro is protected, culturally, visually, and sonically, by a gigantic wall, made of golden bricks stacked higher than the highest bro truck. They can't see you, and you can't see them. A Berlin Wall for the Botox set. A Valencian embassy, maybe.

Newhall Land is selling Villa Metro as Valencia, but being that this is the final act in the Valencia story, they won't be around so much to make sure it sticks. In the long term, it's up to us.

So what say you? Is it Valencia, as it may be inside the walls? Is it Canyon Country, as it is beyond the walls? Or is it Saugus – because what else is Saugus but a compromise between Valencia and Canyon Country?

Or is it just…Santa Clarita? Let it stew for a minute, it will make sense. That's my vote, at least.

Image not recoveredpoll_aux.jpg
Image not recoveredspacer.gif
Image not recoveredspacer.gif
Image not recoveredspacer.gif
Image not recoveredspacer.gif
Image not recoveredspacer.gif


Comments (15)

  1. Lori RivasTuesday, September 17th, 2013 at 11:15 pm
    I'm going to say Newhall, and here's why: Though marked as CC on your map, the area on Sierra Hwy, NE of Golden Valley, has a Newhall zip code, 91321. Not sure where it changes to 91350. I'm guessing at Via Princessa. Newhall reaches into all of SCV, we just don't like to brag. Truth is, that whole unmarked area north of Newhall is still Newhall. We don't discriminate; we like diversity. Newhall is everywhere.
  2. MikeWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 9:26 am
    Fine! Newhall is now an option.
  3. ToddWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 12:09 am
    I'm for "natural" dividing lines. Ridge lines, riverbeds, etc. As such, I'd suggest Newhall is the area south of the riverbed centerline, west of sand canyon, and east of the south fork of the river (roughly Wiley Canyon), bordered by the ridgeline on the south. That would put Villa Metro in Newhall. The problem with my theory is that Valencia is the ogre that ate up Saugus. Saugus (as evident by the location of Saugus Cafe, and the historical locations of Saugus Junction, should be north west of the south fork, yet still south of the main river. Valencia would take exception. I would like to start the "down with Valencia" movement and say no developer should have naming rights over a town. Town names should be organic... should come from within... you can't just say "oh, this is Valencia because I say so." Valencia is a brand. Nothing more. I don't say I live in Coca Cola because of my choice in beverage, so I shouldn't have to say "I live in Valencia" because Stuart Miller says my house is a Valencia house... NO! Alright, its late. I could finish that, but, well, I wanna watch TV. In Short, Saugus should reclaim Valencia for its own.
  4. Leon WordenWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 12:50 am
    If it's a Newhall Land development, it's whatever Newhall Land says it is. You're right about Newhall Land owning the Valencia trademark (patent), but it applies only to land development. It does not, for instance, extend to Valencia Florist. So if a land development is in Pacoima, San Diego or Castaic, if Newhall Land owns & entitles it and chooses to call it Valencia, it is Valencia. If Newhall Land chooses not to call it Valencia (and it's outside of the county-approved Valencia Master Plan area), then it is not Valencia. Similarly, if Wal-Mart chooses to open a store on the moon and decides to call it Wal-Mart, it is Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart opens a store on the moon and decides to call it Sam's Club, it is not Walmart. Incidentally, the identical privileges and restrictions apply to the name Awesometown. It is a registered trademark/patent of Newhall Land, with application limited to land development (to my knowledge). So if Newhall Land chooses to call its new project Awesometown, it is Awesometown. Valencia is not exactly a place so much as it is a thing. (Yes, it might be a state of mind, too, but that's not covered under the patent,) There was a push (by Scott Newhall, on behalf of Newhall Land) to call the Santa Clarita Valley "Valencia Valley" (INSTEAD of Santa Clarita Valley.) Had that happened, Valencia, or at least Valencia Valley, would have been a place. And that would have been OK because the place is not a land development. Ditto with the formation of the city of Santa Clarita. Some people (NOT me) wanted to call it the city of Valencia. That, too, would have been OK under the patent because the trademarked name applies to land development, not places.
  5. IHeartSCVWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 2:51 pm
    Perhaps, then, Villa Metro should be advertised as "Valencia: Now Available in Saugus."
  6. Leon WordenWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 12:52 am
    BTW i hope by now everybody understands that ZIP codes have no bearing on place names, and vice versa. ZIP codes are zones established strictly for business purposes, for the convenience of USPS.
  7. InkGigoloWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 5:24 am
    As a free-thinking person and resident of North Valencia, I reject everything the know-it-all Leon Worden said. WE ARE NOT WALMART! That said, I vote and hereby proclaim Villa Metro to, from henceforth and notwithstanding all of the penultimate paragraph of the above piece heretofore .. Uh .. where was I .. oh yeah .. South Valencia. (How do you change the font on these posts? I would SO like to be using Comic Sans...whatever)
  8. Leon WordenWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 11:01 am
    You're right, of course. We are not Wal-Mart. We are Soylent Green. Which would make a hell of a name for a subdivision IMO.
  9. NFICWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 7:24 am
    Unfortunately, this development with it's 10' high berm with an 8' wall on top along Soledad looks loke a walled fortress from the middle ages. For a development that is supposed to be mixed use work\live, it seems odd to create this kind of barrier. I would not be surprised if the work portion did not materialize and this turns into just another housing tract.
  10. WalkerWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 9:55 am
    It's my understanding that there is no way for them to enforce the work portion of the live work idea. The (less than a dozen, I believe) units with the 'work' space will simply be empty shells for the owner to use as they wish...including as a part of their residence if they wish. Also, have you driven down / looked down the entrance to the neighborhood? The road is SO NARROW and there's so little parking, I can't imagine a scenario where having customers to the home would be practical. I do believe the live/work units will have a parking space on the street (as well as a 2 car garage), but really, that entrance street (the only ingress to the neighborhood) is uncomfortably narrow, I just can't see how it could be successful as any sort of 'work' space (aside from a home office w/out on-site clients, of course).
  11. BertaWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 9:37 am
    Newhall Land and others can call Villa Metro whatever they want but it sits squarely in the community of Saugus across from the Saugus Speedway. Traditionally, the California Aqueduct pipe and Soledad Cyn. Rd. was the Western dividing line between Saugus and Canyon Country. When the Canyon Country General Beautification Committee (founding member) was asked to come up with “our” boundaries that was how the votes decided the question, North and West of Soledad/Aqueduct was Saugus to wherever Saugus/Valencia decides is their boundary. Heading South down to Placerita/Dockweiler, North to top of Whites Cyn, and East to Davenport Rd. was all Canyon Country according to the group.
  12. MikeWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 11:00 am
    To clarify: my intention with "Santa Clarita" option is to be an umbrella for "other," "to be determined," or permanently Santa Clarita.
  13. Leon WordenWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 11:04 am
    Well sure it's Santa Clarita ... everything is Santa Clarita. It's the name of both the city and the valley.
  14. MikeWednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 11:17 am
    Right, but you know how some parts of LA are just "Los Angeles?"
  15. evitalc31Wednesday, September 18th, 2013 at 6:03 pm
    I would just call it Santa Clarita.

Preserved as part of the SCV Talk Archive. Text is presented as originally published; presentation has been standardised for readability. The original capture is available at the Internet Archive.

Support