L.A. OKs $1.9 Million to Buy Sylmar Site for Train Depot

Lawmakers on Wednesday voted to spend $1.9 million to buy a six-acre parcel in Sylmar for development of a train station for the downtown Los Angeles-to-Santa Clarita Metrolink rail line.

The Metrolink line is scheduled to open in October, and city officials are racing to acquire the Sylmar property and build a covered platform and adjacent 500-space parking lot for commuters to meet that deadline.

Despite the vote by the Los Angeles City Council, no final agreement has been reached on the sale price of the key parcel. “We haven’t got the owners to buy off on this price yet,” said James Okazaki, a senior official in the city’s Department of Transportation.

The city initially offered the owners, Friedman Brothers Investment Co., $1.7 million. The Friedman Brothers countered with $2.7 million and now the city has raised its initial offer by $200,000.

Okazaki said he was hopeful that Wednesday’s council action will signal to the owners that “we are willing to cooperate, but we’re not ready to pay an arm and a leg for this.”

Albert Friedman, one of the owners, refused to comment on the city’s latest offer, saying he had not yet received it.

The station, between Hubbard and Sayre streets next to the Southern Pacific tracks, would be the only depot in the city of Los Angeles along the Santa Clarita Metrolink line. The only other San Fernando Valley station will be in Burbank.

The entire 26 acres, all owned by the Friedmans, is now used for vegetable and flower farming.

The Friedmans, however, are in escrow to sell the site to Watt-Pacific Inc. Watt, one of Southern California’s largest developers, has obtained city approvals, including a special variance, for its plans to build 280 condominiums on 20 acres at the site. Watt officials say they are not opposed to the train station.

City housing officials have been anxious to see the condominium project proceed because it will be targeted at first-time, moderate-income home buyers.

The city has agreed to provide Watt-Pacific with access to $11.8 million in low-interest loans that it can offer to qualified buyers.

Development of the station and the condominium project has concerned some Sylmar residents.

Timoteo Lopez, a longtime Sylmar resident who led a petition drive to oppose the housing project, recently complained that the rail station and condominiums would congest local streets and add to the overcrowding of Sylmar-area schools.