“I stand before you right now to beg you to reject this proposed project,” Felicia Grady, Canyon Theatre Guild Member.
Downtown Newhall business owners recently addressed the City Council on the proposed five-story mixed-use development, which will demolish the almost century-old Newhall Courthouse.
In its place will be a development project featuring 78 apartments and 5,300 square feet of commercial space. The developer quietly negotiated a $750,000 “impact fee” with an unnamed council member, which was never disclosed in any public study or on the council agenda.
A developer’s $750,000 ‘offset fee’ was meant to ease concerns over demolishing a historic building. But critics say it feels less like a preservation and more like a payoff.
Main Street business leaders like Mike Miller say new housing and shops are vital to draw visitors back to Main Street and sustain local restaurants after years of decline.
“Without these kinds of investments and without bringing people to the streets. Without residents to walk around and shop, support the restaurants at night, downtown Newhall will not survive its current state,” said Mike Miller, Director of Heart & Main.
“And all these people who have put so much effort, money, love into it are going to go away,” said Miller.
In contrast to Miller’s view, other business owners worry the new development will prompt landlords to raise rents, forcing longtime Main Street tenants out.
“I think they’re trying to attract more outsiders,” said Taylor Clement, Owner of Teagan’s Tea Room. “I think they’re trying to remodel the environment of Main Street, which definitely has positive aspects to it.”
“I really hope that mom and pop businesses can stay in business, and I don’t want to see all of Main Street become corporate,” said Clement.
Clement shared that her customers park blocks away and Uber in, and other owners worry the new project will deepen the parking dilemma.
Whether the century-old courthouse survives or makes way for new development, this debate poses a larger question for Newhall: how to welcome change without losing the history and small-town charm that first drew people here.
A proposed project in Old Town Newhall is dividing the community
