By Leon Worden/SCVNEWS.com

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is scheduled Tuesday to allocate $315,000 in start-up funds for $1 million worth of improvements to the entrance to William S. Hart Park in Newhall.

Parks Director Russ Guiney is asking the supervisors to earmark $315,000 in “excess” funding that the county’s Regional Park and Open Space District received from a 1996 state parks bond measure to get the project going.

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Plans call for the chain-link fence along Newhall Avenue in front of Hart Park to be replaced with masonry and wrought iron. Included would be new wrought iron entry gates, new lighting and marquee signage, as well as a new irrigation system, a minor road realignment and new landscaping at pedestrian and vehicular entries.

The improvements would stretch from the south entrance of Hart Park on Newhall Avenue, north past the entrance to Heritage Junction Historic Park.

The $385,000 start-up funds “will be supplemented with $685,000 of net county cost,” Guiney says in his report to the supervisors. He said the Parks Department and the county’s administrative office would be working together on cost figures and return to the board with a subsequent funding request when the additional money is needed.

Guiney’s report says no environmental review of the project is necessary because it merely replaces existing structures and makes minor alterations.

The county is aware of the city of Santa Clarita’s plans to transform the intersection adjacent to Hart Park to a traffic circle or “roundabout” configuration. The city put the roundabout on hold when the state eliminated redevelopment, which was supposed to pay for it. The planned improvements to Hart Park would work with or without the roundabout.