Santa Clarita city planners have put on hold a proposed Lyons Avenue railroad crossing that would replace the 13th Street crossing in Newhall.

While the proposed project drew complaints from Placerita Canyon residents, the real obstacle to construction was finding a way to pay for it, planners said.

The city had proposed closing the 13th Street at-grade railroad crossing and building a new one on an extension of Lyons Avenue. Doing so would allow the city to extend Dockweiler Avenue north and west to Lyons, connecting downtown Newhall and Placerita Canyon.

The city would like to fold the railroad crossing project, which has an estimated price tag of $7.5 million, into a developer’s contract with the city, said Paul Brotzman, the city’s community development director.

But no developer is far enough along on a project to make that feasible. So the city is halting any progress on its application to the California Public Utilities Commission, which would have to approve the railroad crossing.

Developer Casden Properties LLC has already paid $100,000 toward an environmental study for the crossing.

Casden owns about 110 acres in northeast Newhall and paid part of the environmental report’s cost at the city’s request. Brotzman said Casden officials don’t think the new crossing is necessary for their project and would rather spare themselves the expense of building it.

Many Placerita Canyon residents oppose the crossing idea, saying a multi-lane thoroughfare would ruin the equestrian quality of life in the eastern Santa Clarita community.

Residents there are also keeping a close eye on Casden. The developer is expected to build 500 to 700 homes on its property, which serves as a kind of gateway to the canyon.

The Placerita Canyon Property Owners Association hired attorney Robert Silverstein to delve into the city’s unique two-phased environmental report for the proposed crossing.

The first phase looked exclusively at the railroad crossing; the second phase would consider the broader effects of the railroad crossing.

City planners have said they divided the study into two phases because they wanted to get the OK to build the crossing from the California Public Utilities Commission before doing the larger study.

Placerita Canyon residents cheered the pause in the plan but didn’t call it a victory.

“Hopefully, when the project comes back, it will be with the full project so that things can be evaluated on the basis of the entire area,” resident Val Thomas said. “That’s the most important thing. Our point has really not been to stop the thing but to get the whole picture.”

But Brotzman said the city’s position is that it’s still appropriate to weigh the merits of the railroad crossing at Lyons as a stand-alone project, not tied with any proposed development.

Connecting Dockweiler to Lyons has been part of the city’s General Plan since its inception more than 20 years ago and was in Los Angeles County’s plans before that, according to the city.

Brotzman said the city still plans to pursue the at-grade crossing because Lyons Avenue is the planners’ preferred connecting point for extending Dockweiler.

But if the Santa Clarita City Council, or the state commission, voted against the Lyons crossing, the city could make do with the 13th Street railroad crossing and have Dockweiler connect there, Brotzman said.