Santa Clarita OKs Purchase of Land for 1st City Hall

The Santa Clarita City Council has approved the purchase of 238 acres for the young municipality’s first city hall.

The council approved the purchase late Tuesday night after city officials announced that the property owner, Wes Lind, had accepted the city’s $5.1-million offer for the property.

Santa Clarita has 75 days to complete a feasibility study on the land southeast of the intersection of Soledad Canyon and Bouquet Canyon roads. The parcel is hilly, and city officials said the rugged topography could provide dramatic backdrops for city buildings or a park.

The feasibility study will cost about $200,000. If the study shows the site unsuitable, the council could terminate the deal and would recover a $50,000 deposit it submitted with its offer to Lind on Sept. 20.

But if the purchase goes through as planned, it would end a yearlong search for a permanent city hall site. City offices are now on the third floor of the Valencia National Bank building.

City officials inspected 18 different sites before bidding on Lind’s property. The council’s first choice for a city hall site had been the defunct Saugus Rehabilitation Center, a 520-acre parcel owned by the city of Los Angeles.

But the city’s bid for the Saugus property has been stymied by ongoing negotiations over a proposed dump in Elsmere Canyon, just east of Santa Clarita. Backers of the dump, including Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), have suggested giving the former alcoholic rehabilitation center to Santa Clarita if the City Council agrees not to oppose the dump in Elsmere Canyon.

Despite the city’s apparent purchase of the 238 acres, the city is still interested in the rehabilitation center, possibly as parkland or as a meeting site for nonprofit organizations, Councilwoman Jo Anne Darcy said Thursday.