SIMI VALLEY : City to Pursue Negotiations on Purchasing Land

The Simi Valley City Council has decided to pursue negotiations for the purchase of a 33-acre parcel that will be developed as part of a regional shopping mall.

Despite some disagreement among officials, the council appointed Mayor Greg Stratton and Councilman Michael Piper to discuss the possible purchase of the land with Bill Baker, a former councilman and owner of the property.

“There have been some negotiations,” Stratton said. “We’re kicking the tires.”

By purchasing the land, the city would be in a better position to provide assistance to the developer in building the mall, Stratton said.

It would also provide assurance that the land would only be used for a mall, he said.

Melvin Simon & Associates plans to develop a 1.5-million-square-foot regional shopping mall and office complex on a 126-acre site between 1st Street and Erringer Road north of the Simi Valley Freeway. Baker’s land is northeast of 1st Street.

The mayor declined to discuss details of the negotiations, including the possible price of the land.

Some officials at Tuesday’s council meeting said the city should not get involved in land-banking or assisting the developer with his project.

“We’re not building the mall; Melvin Simon is,” Councilwoman Sandi Webb said.

Because the land is zoned for a mall, she said she is not worried about the city losing it to a buyer that may be interested in pursuing some other type of development.

Melvin Simon, which has delayed groundbreaking on the mall indefinitely because of the recession, has so far chosen not to exercise its option to purchase the 126 acres, made up of three separately owned parcels.

Meanwhile, Baker is scheduled to go to court next week to settle a long-running dispute with relatives of his deceased wife, Lucile Chandler Estes, over her $12-million estate.

This includes the land that Baker wants to sell to the city.

Estes left her husband the bulk of her estate when she died in 1989.

But some of her relatives contend that Baker duped Estes into placing all of her assets into a trust with him in sole control.