At Proposed Park Site, Only Frustration Grows : Land: Hawthorne thought it had won a fight with Caltrans over rights to an empty lot. Now the city prepares to battle the developer who bought it.

For nearly a decade, a dusty stretch of state-owned land in Hawthorne known as the Glasgow Strip has been the unlikely prize in a tug of war between Caltrans and local politicians.

Hawthorne officials wanted to buy the 4.6-acre property, which they said was worth about $200,000, and turn it into a park. But officials with the state Department of Transportation valued the site--which once contained dozens of neatly landscaped homes--at $2.9 million.

Their stalemate was finally broken this summer when Caltrans decided that the strip wasn’t worth the headache and agreed to auction it off at a minimum bidding price of $200,000. But when the bids were opened in August, city officials and nearby homeowners were stunned to learn that a Downey developer, Paul B. del Valle, had outbid the city by a mere $11,000.

“It was devastating,” said resident Ruth Stocker, who earlier this year helped raise more than $1,100 to buy 33 magnolia trees for the hoped-for park. “It’s really sad for us. We were so sure that the strip was ours. . . . We just didn’t anticipate anybody wanting that property.”

Although del Valle’s purchase of the property was approved Oct. 14 by the California Transportation Department, the sale is not yet final. And Hawthorne officials, who have since offered the developer $215,000 for the property, are gearing up for a legal battle to claim the land, which the city zoned seven years ago for urban open space.

In recent weeks, City Atty. Michael Adamson has begun to prepare the paperwork to force del Valle to sell the property, which runs along Glasgow Place on the western embankment of the San Diego Freeway in the Hawthorne community of Hollyglen. He plans to ask the council Nov. 25 to have a public hearing on a resolution to authorize eminent domain proceedings to allow the city to condemn and seize the property.

Del Valle, whose company, Del’s Developers, has built about 200 residential units in Los Angeles County in the last 10 years, said the city’s offer “doesn’t even cover commission for a sales agent.” Del Valle said he has not yet rejected the offer and has requested a meeting with city officials to discuss the matter.

“We’re business people,” del Valle said. “If we have a reasonable offer, we will definitely take a look at it. We’ll never close the door on any particular offer if people are dealing with good faith.”

Del Valle also raised questions about whether the city wants the expense and possible crime problems of maintaining a park. He said it might make more sense to use the property for a parking lot or a plant nursery.

If a majority of residents want a park and the city restricts his ability to develop the property, del Valle said he “should at least have a right to keep it and give it to (his) grandchildren rather than be forced to give it up.”

But state Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson), a Hawthorne native who has sponsored three bills since 1984 supporting the city’s plans to buy the strip, said recently that del Valle is mistaken if he thinks that Hollyglen residents will accept anything less than a greenbelt.

“This is Hawthorne’s Alamo,” Floyd said. “This is where we . . . make our last stand against the bureaucracy of Caltrans. Anybody coming to touch our Glasgow Strip has got a fight coming.”

Hollyglen resident Lorene Christensen, who estimates that at least 90% of the area’s homeowners favor a park, agreed. “Have (del Valle) come to a Hollyglen Homeowners Assn. meeting. We’d love to get our hands on him. . . . I just can’t understand this man’s thinking, other than that he’s got dollar signs for eyes and a cash register for a heart,” she said.

To outsiders, it may be difficult to understand how an irregular, narrow band of dirt could evoke such strong emotions.

The Glasgow Strip was one of several properties the state purchased in 1972 to widen the San Diego Freeway in conjunction with the Century Freeway project. But when the widening work was completed, the land remained vacant.

After the homes were razed, the property became a dumping ground for everything from refuse to old refrigerators, toilets and roofing materials. Nearby homeowners, who complained their property values had dropped, began lobbying city officials to buy back the land for a park.

In 1983, the council changed the property’s zoning from residential to urban open space. City officials said the land was too close to the freeway for residential development, but Caltrans officials said the change was a calculated effort to drive down the purchase price.

In September, 1989, Floyd succeeded in getting the city a $200,000 state grant to buy the property, but private investors, who did not realize the land was zoned for open space, outbid the city by $1.2 million. The sale, however, was never completed because the transportation commission rejected the investors’ offer as too low.

Later, a Floyd-backed bill that would have required Caltrans to sell the property to Hawthorne for $200,000 was vetoed by former Gov. George Deukmejian. It was only when Floyd threatened to introduce similar legislation this year that Caltrans decided to hold another auction of the property.

Jerry McFetridge, consultant to the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization, said Caltrans’ reversal came from top officials who “agreed this problem had gone on much too long and made a commitment to solve this problem.”

The decision to sell came as a relief to James Dusini, a supervising right-of-way agent for Caltrans who has overseen negotiations for the Glasgow Strip for several years.

“I’m glad to get rid of it from a personal standpoint because it has been such a political headache,” Dusini said. He also said he was not surprised by the developer’s offer.

“This property has a lot more value if someone can hold on long enough and get residential use in there--if someone is willing to take it and say, ‘Hey, I’m buying it for my grandkids,’ ” Dusini said.

“I wasn’t shocked it sold,” he added. “I’m shocked there were not a lot more bidders.”

The Glasgow Strip Hawthorne officials want to buy the 4.6-acre Glasgow Strip, which runs along GlasgowPlace on the western embankment of the San Diego Freeway between 134th Street and 142nd Place.