Council Panel OKs Up to $5 Million to Buy Site for Chatsworth Rail Station

A Los Angeles City Council committee Friday approved spending up to $5 million to buy 13 acres in Chatsworth, where the city and county plan to build a commuter rail station and transportation complex.

The council’s transportation committee voted 3 to 0 to acquire the property, located between Devonshire and Lassen streets and west of Canoga Avenue, from the Southern Pacific railroad. The full council will vote on the proposal May 22.

The money would come from the city’s share of an increase in the sales tax, approved by voters in 1980 and 1990 for transportation purposes.

The committee also authorized city officials to enter into a partnership with the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission to jointly purchase and develop the station and select a private developer to build a commercial complex, which is intended to recoup the cost to the city and county.

Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the area, praised city officials for expediting purchase of the site. “This is going to be an outstanding addition to our community,” he said.

The station is meant to serve planned commuter trains running from Ventura County to downtown Los Angeles on Southern Pacific’s existing Coast Main Line track. The service is scheduled to begin in the fall of 1992 but Bernson said it may begin earlier.

The total price for the 13-acre site will be about $17 million, Dan Beal, a senior city legislative analyst, told the committee. Beal said the remaining money would be contributed by the county Transportation Commission and the state.

The city and county hope to recover the cost of buying the site and developing a station through lease payments from a private developer who would build a retail project on it.

Such a joint venture development has been endorsed by Bernson, County Transportation Commission Chairman Nikolas Patsaouras and Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the council’s transportation committee.

Last month, Bernson introduced a motion in which he described a 140,000-square-foot mixed-use development.

A recent county transportation commission staff report outlined a private retail-commercial project of 110,000 square feet, with parking below ground or in a low structure.

The transportation center proposal was developed after Bernson succeeded in quashing a Southern Pacific plan to turn the site into a lumber transfer yard, which had drawn protests from neighboring homeowners.