Officials Name 4 Alternative Sites for L.A. Prison : Corrections: The DWP points to locations in Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys. But Gov. Pete Wilson says it may be too late to change plans.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has identified four locations in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys as alternative sites for a proposed East Los Angeles prison, but Gov. Pete Wilson indicated Thursday that it may be too late to change the state’s plans.

The Los Angeles City Council in January directed the DWP to study its extensive landholdings after Wilson indicated he might be willing to review alternative sites for the 1,450-bed facility planned near Olympic Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue.

But Wilson, mired in budget negotiations this week, cast doubt Thursday on the prospects of relocating the $147-million prison, saying that he “probably would have” supported an alternative site, but “I don’t know if that’s possible now.”

State corrections officials and local legislators adamantly oppose relocating the prison and said it would take a major policy shift initiated by the governor’s office to make them change their minds.

“This is a really dumb thing for the city to be pursuing,” said state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita), who represents the Santa Clarita Valley where three of the four DWP sites are located.

But a spokesman for state Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), who strongly opposes the East Los Angeles site because the community is already surrounded by five detention centers, said representatives of the area will continue to lobby Wilson.

“The governor is in a very sensitive position because Gov. Deukmejian so adamantly insisted that the prison be in East Los Angeles,” said Henry Contreras, a spokesman for Roybal-Allard. “This is not a decision that is going to be made quickly.

“The community continues to be opposed to a prison in East Los Angeles because of the severe overconcentration of facilities already there.”

The East Los Angeles site was chosen in a 1987 “pain-for-pain” compromise hammered out by the Legislature after years of political haggling. Lawmakers agreed to permit a prison in heavily Democratic East Los Angeles if another were built in the heavily Republican Antelope Valley. Under the agreement, neither prison can be used unless the other is.

State Sen. Robert Presley (D-Riverside), chairman of the Joint Committee on Prison Construction and Operations, criticized Los Angeles officials for seeking to undo the “precarious” compromise.

“To start from scratch would jeopardize a lot of time and money that’s already been expended,” Presley said.

Construction began in October on the $207-million, 2,200-bed companion prison in Lancaster. But although the state has spent about $15 million to purchase the East Los Angeles property from Southern Pacific, construction has not begun there because of a lawsuit against the prison by the city of Los Angeles, said Christine May, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections.

The city is appealing a Superior Court ruling that upheld the adequacy of the environmental report on the East Los Angeles site, said Gerry Hertzberg, chief legislative deputy to county Supervisor Gloria Molina. When Molina was on the Los Angeles City Council in January, she suggested that the DWP study alternative sites, in response to a comment by Wilson that he preferred locating prisons in communities that welcome the job opportunities they present, Hertzberg said.

The study, which will be released next week, simply identifies sites owned by the agency that are larger than 20 acres and are in the unincorporated portion of the county. Three of the sites are in the Santa Clarita Valley north of the city of Santa Clarita, and the other is west of Lancaster near Lake Elizabeth.

The DWP properties in the Santa Clarita Valley are 135 acres in San Francisquito Canyon, 1,132 acres in Bouquet Canyon and 300 acres in Dry Canyon. The Antelope Valley site is a 568-acre parcel containing the Fairmont Reservoir.

Local legislators vowed Thursday to fight the relocation of the prison, citing the distance from Los Angeles courts and the narrow roads leading to at least three of the four sites.

“This is just another example of urban residents trying to dump on the desert,” said Assemblyman Phil Wyman (R-Tehachapi), who represents parts of the Antelope Valley. “Just let them try this--we’ll see them in court.”

Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) also warned Wilson and Los Angeles officials against “opening an old wound and starting another battle. It would be very foolish for another governor to disrupt what has already been done.”

Hertzberg, Molina’s spokesman, acknowledged that relocating the prison “would take a lot. But there may be a site where the community does indeed want a prison. Our object was to find out what the options are.”