SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : City Farm Purchase Delayed but Still On

There has been a delay in the city’s much-heralded $9.5-million purchase of a 56-acre farm to be preserved as a living museum, city officials said.

While those involved in the purchase of the Kinoshita Farm remain confident the sale will be consummated, escrow will not close today as previously announced, City Manager Stephen B. Julian said.

“It is not a major problem, just a matter of some tax issues and a timetable,” Julian said. “The attorneys are working on it, and we hope to have it ironed out by early next week.”

Until escrow closes, the Kinoshita family will not receive its $1-million check from the city, which was scheduled to be the first payment. But Shig Kinoshita also said he believes that a check will be arriving soon.

“We are confident that the deal is still on,” Kinoshita said this week. “These are just minor glitches in the agreement.”

Under the terms revealed at a press conference Oct. 30, the city had agreed to buy the farm and 112-year-old farmhouse owned for the last 35 years by Shig and Bobby Kinoshita. All but 10 acres of the land would remain active farmland managed by the Kinoshita family, with the remaining land reserved as a potential site for adult education, Julian said.

To buy the land, the city will use a $1.3-million loan from the California Coastal Conservancy, $6 million from $21 million in bonds approved by city voters last April, and the remainder from the city’s agricultural preserve funds and park fee funds, according to the original agreement.

When the sale was announced last fall, it was called a “historic achievement” by city officials, one that would preserve a treasured part of San Juan Capistrano’s quickly disappearing farm heritage. Because the land sits in the midst of a densely populated residential area next to two schools, the site has been a prime target for development, Kinoshita said.