It was out with the old and in with the new Saturday morning as hundreds of people celebrated the grand opening of Santa Clarita’s new community center.

    After a construction phase of more than a year, and at a cost of nearly $7 million, the new center is finally open, with all the same programs residents have come to associate with the center as well as some new ones in the works.

    “At the old community center we had just one big room and we used partitions and curtains as dividers,” said Hope Horner, community center supervisor. “We were able to accomplish quite a lot over there, but this building has separate rooms and a lot more space. We are going to be able to have more, and better quality, programs.”

    Horner said she has plans on expanding the art and music classes the center offers, as well as partnering with College of the Canyons to offer citizenship and English-as-a-second-language classes.

    “We’ll definitely be able to have more adult programs,” she said. “At least here, you won’t have homework and boxing going on right next to each other.”

    At approximately 17,000 square feet, the new building dwarfs the old one-room building on San Fernando Road that the city has leased since 1994.

    “(The old building) felt more like a store front,” Horner said. “Here we are surrounded by beautiful hills and (have a) state-of-the-art building.”

    That state-of-the-art building hosts rooms for music, dancing, boxing, a toy area for kids, a kitchen, a reading room, a computer room, office space and a gymnasium, to name a few.

    In addition there is a playground and basketball area outside.

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