Downtown Newhall Specific Plan

Location: Santa Clarita, CA. Suburban Los Angeles

Newhall a historic Southern California community that is within the 250 square mile Santa Clarita valley. Long since surrounded by suburban development over the past 50 years, this 300-acre Specific Plan repairs the community's connections along two corridors, sensitively intensifies the two historic neighborhoods which flank the downtown and, transforms the original 1870's settlement of Newhall into a serious transit-oriented district linked by commuter rail to downtown Los Angeles. The Specific Plan utilizes a strategy of intensifying the adjacent parallel corridors to maintain regional access while converting vast amounts of surface parking and automotive-related industry to mixed use and transit-oriented housing. The centerpiece of these initiatives is a new, five-block main street of approximately 300,000 square feet, which is organized as a formal Avenue terminated by major civic institutions at each end. Punctuating the main street is a new Mercado and Plaza furthering Newhall's civic potential. Parking is accommodated in two strategically dispersed Park Once garages that are 'wrapped' with mixed use buildings to reinforce the urban nature of the place. The desired outcomes are codified into a form-based code which consists of five transect zones, public realm standards for ten thoroughfare types and three open space types, an architectural typology code for nine building types and architecture frontage code for six frontage types and, an architectural style code addressing the five prevalent vernacular styles in the area.

Transect Zone(s): T3 sub-urban.
Status: Plan Approved
Project or Plan's Scale: Corridor
Features: Affordable/subsidized housing, Bus transit, Live/work, Mixed uses, Rail/fixed guideway transit, Sustainable infrastructure, Transit oriented development.
Land area (in acres): 300
Total built area (in sq. ft.):
Total project cost (in local currency):
Retail area (in sq. ft.): 600000
Office area (in sq. ft.): 400000
Industrial area (in sq. ft.):
Number of hotel units:
Number of residential units (include live/work): 1100
Parks & green space (in acres):
Residential types: Mid-rise/loft, Low-rise flats, Townhouse/rowhouse/maisonette, Semi-detached, Small lot detached, Live/work.
Project team designers: Elizabeth Moule, Stefanos Polyzoides, Jose Antonio Perez
Project team developers: City of Santa Clarita, CA

Previous site status:

Starting/Ending date of construction/implementation: -