Antonovich Speaks : Castaic Called Seismically Unfit as Site for a Prison

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mike Antonovich predicted Wednesday that a state prison will never be built in Castaic because the land is seismically unsafe.

Earthquake faults beneath the county-owned site near the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, a county jail, “would not permit a steel and concrete structure,” which is required for the prison, Antonovich said. His remarks were made during what he called a “state of the county” address before Santa Clarita Valley civic and business leaders.

“If worse comes to worst” and state legislators approve Castaic as the prison site, Antonovich said, “They’ll never build it because the land won’t permit it. I think they’re just spinning their wheels.”

State Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), who favors the Castaic location, and Gov. George Deukmejian, who wants the prison built in downtown Los Angeles, are trying to reach a compromise before new legislation naming a Los Angeles County prison site is introduced.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) has said the Assembly will approve any site selected by the Senate.

Castaic Site Ruled Out

Roberti indicated earlier this month that Castaic was second on the state Department of Corrections’ list of potential prison sites. However, Robert Gore, corrections department spokesman, said the Castaic location was ruled out last year because of “the earthquake problem.” The site also has “flood-plain problems” and is in “very hilly terrain,” he said.

Castaic never was ranked second behind the site in downtown Los Angeles--called the Crown Coach site--which is favored by the corrections department and the governor, Gore said.

“It just happened to be second on a list at one time,” he said. “But Castaic was not the department’s second choice.”

Gore said the department narrowed a list containing more than 100 potential sites to five--the Crown Coach site and sites in South Gate, Vernon, Agua Dulce and Lancaster. East Los Angeles legislators have opposed the Crown Coach site because they say it would be too close to residences and schools in their districts.

Will Continue Opposition

Antonovich said he will continue to oppose any site in the Santa Clarita or Antelope valleys and to push toward the state’s purchase of the Crown Coach property. He said that site is not in East Los Angeles, as local legislators have maintained.

“It’s located in downtown Los Angeles,” he said. “It’s in an industrial area, next to the Los Angeles River, buffered by railroad yards. There are no houses on either side.”

He said legislation introduced last year by state Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), designating the Crown Coach location “was going to create a green belt in that community, which is a slum, poor, run-down community.” The bill was defeated.

If the prison is built in the so-called rural areas he represents, Antonovich said, it will cost taxpayers millions of dollars more to build courtrooms and hospitals to support the facility.