Lancaster Takes a 2nd Look at Preserve Plan : Environment: The parcel that the city bought without an appraisal has Joshua trees, but lacks the diversity to be called a prime woodlands site. City officials are considering another site.

Less than a year after spending $1.1 million to buy land from an embattled developer for a supposed Joshua tree preserve, Lancaster is having second thoughts about the plan and may unload the property, a top city official says.

When Lancaster bought the 22.5-acre parcel last December without an appraisal, they paid developer Joseph Rivani 45% more than he had paid three years earlier. Even though Antelope Valley real estate prices had tumbled by then, city officials defended the deal, citing the importance of preserving the area’s trees.

Last week, Lancaster parks director Lyle Norton said the city now plans to focus on buying the rest of a Prime Desert Woodlands area about a mile away that had been the city’s designated Joshua tree preserve site all along. Norton said the future use of the Rivani land is in doubt.

“If we’re really trying to get an open space preserve area for our citizens, does it make sense to have a 50- to 80-acre one, and then a mile or two down the road have another 30-acre one?” Norton asked. “Why would we need to have two so close together?”

Lancaster already owns about 40 acres of the 72-acre desert woodlands site that city lawmakers made their top priority for acquisition and preservation in 1989. Norton said that his immediate goal is to obtain another 10 acres there. To be considered a Prime Desert Woodlands site, an area must contain a combination of Joshua trees, the distinctive gnarled tree of the high desert, juniper trees, sand dunes and other native plant and animal life.

Norton said the Rivani site lacks sand dunes and a diversity of plants other than Joshua trees.

In December, 1991, the city paid $1.1 million or $49,000 an acre for Rivani’s 22.5 acres on the south side of Avenue K between 45th and 50th streets West. Rivani bought the land only three years earlier for about $760,500, or $33,800 an acre, when land prices were near record highs.

In their rush to buy the Rivani site--a purchase which occurred at a time when the land investor was delinquent on his property taxes and would have faced a tough time finding a private buyer in the slumping real estate market--council members never debated the question of the two sites, at least not publicly.

In fact, all council discussion of the deal last fall, including the final vote, occurred behind closed doors, and the purchase price was not disclosed until later. As a result of the controversy over the deal, the city now conducts appraisals and takes public votes on property purchases.

Buying Rivani’s site for a Joshua tree preserve was the brainchild of then-Councilman Bill Pursley, a real estate broker who has always maintained the city got a good deal. But the city’s enthusiasm for the plan appears to have waned with the departure of Pursley, who did not seek reelection in April.

The one-term councilman was fined $16,000 in June by the state Fair Political Practices Commission for several conflict-of-interest violations, unrelated to Rivani, and for failing to disclose his income and assets. County prosecutors are reviewing whether to criminally charge Pursley.

In recent briefings, Norton said Frank Roberts and George Runner, the two new council members who took office in that election, have questioned the wisdom of pursuing both sites. Although the council has not made a formal policy decision yet, Norton said he favors the desert woodlands site.

“That’s where we need to put our resources,” Norton said. And although the parks director also never publicly questioned the Rivani purchase when he was negotiating it last year, Norton said last week: “It’s never been a secret my first priority was to focus on the Prime Desert Woodlands.”

From the perspective of trying to create a Joshua tree preserve, the Rivani property was problematic from the start, because the 22.5-acre area is U-shaped. To have a cohesive preserve, the city would still have to purchase the remaining 7.5 acres in the middle from other owners, city officials have said.

Norton said the city’s prospects for seeking that remaining land now are “up in the air” because of council members’ concerns. And if the city decides to formally abandon the preserve concept at the site, Norton said the city might try to trade its holdings there for land in the Prime Desert Woodlands area.

The Prime Desert Woodlands, about one mile east of the Rivani site, also is south of Avenue K but between about 32nd and 38th Streets West.

Just before the city’s purchase, Rivani himself had been trying to persuade Lancaster to rezone 12.5 acres of his property for housing development. And in April, 1990, the council voted to permit dozens of houses on the other 10 acres after city planners said the land did not merit preservation.

The city soon may have to choose where to focus its Joshua tree efforts because of the impending arrival of a $1-million state grant for such purchases.

The City Council last week approved a plan that would permit the purchase of either the remaining 7.5 acres near the Rivani site, the two five-acre parcels of Prime Desert Woodlands long targeted for purchase, or both.