Bill to Force Caltrans to Sell Parcel Is Vetoed

Gov. George Deukmejian has vetoed a bill that would have required Caltrans to offer a disputed piece of property in Hawthorne for sale as open space.

The land, a mile-long strip between Glasgow Place and the San Diego (405) Freeway, has remained a dusty and trash-strewn eyesore for years as the city of Hawthorne and the state have battled over its future.

Caltrans wants to sell the land for development as single-family housing, but the city has zoned the land for open space and is pressing to develop it into a park.

Deukmejian objected that the bill by Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson) would prevent the state from getting the highest price possible for the narrow 4.7-acre strip, which runs from Rosecrans Avenue to El Segundo Boulevard.

“This could result in a loss of funds, which would be available for other highway projects,” Deukmejian said in his veto message. The state wants to put the land on the market as residential property so it can command a higher price.

Floyd sharply denounced the veto, saying the governor is stubbornly disregarding a 1983 Hawthorne City Council decision to rezone the property from single-family residential to urban open space.

“He believes the state is all-powerful,” Floyd said, adding that residents strongly support the park proposal. “These people are living next to the busiest freeway in the country, for God’s sake. They could at least have some open space.”

Floyd said he plans to introduce similar legislation next year. Hawthorne City Manager Kenneth Jue said he will have firm backing from the city, which last year was granted $200,000 in state money to buy the land under a bill sponsored by Floyd.

“The fight is not over,” Jue said. “We desperately need more parks in Hawthorne.”

The strip was among properties the state purchased in the early ‘70s so it could widen the San Diego Freeway in conjunction with the Century Freeway project. The narrow band of land remained unused after the widening work was finished.

Last November, Caltrans put up for sale the 21 parcels contained in the strip, but the California Transportation Commission rejected the bids, totaling $1.4 million, because it considered them too low.

Commission Chairman William Leonard blames the low bids on Hawthorne’s 1983 decision to rezone the property for open space, saying it dampened investor interest in the land.

In an interview Tuesday, Leonard said Floyd’s bill drew a veto because the state believes it should be able to sell its surplus highway land under the same zoning that prevailed when it purchased the property. In the case of the so-called Glasgow strip, he said, that means single-family residential.

“We’re obligated under the law to sell at the highest and best use,” Leonard said. “This isn’t picking on Hawthorne.”

That view is not shared by residents of Holyglen, a neighborhood facing the strip.

“How would you like living across the street from a public dump?” said Mark Fink, a board member of the Holyglen Taxpayers Assn. “Whether it’s this governor or another, we’re not going to quit fighting.”