Lancaster Agrees to Acquire More Parcels for Projects

Continuing to acquire land for a new industrial park and a larger sheriff’s station, the Lancaster City Council spent $835,000 this week to buy three parcels and voted to condemn three others whose owners have not agreed to sell.

The industrial park is aimed at luring new employers to the city, and the new sheriff’s station is considered a cornerstone of the city’s drive to revitalize its aging downtown area.

In recent months the city has acquired four of the eight undeveloped parcels that make up the proposed 30-acre industrial park near Sierra Highway and Avenue H.

At Monday’s meeting, council members, as directors of the city’s redevelopment agency, voted 4 to 0 to buy a fifth parcel, 1.1 acre in size, for $90,000. The council also voted to begin condemnation proceedings to obtain the remaining three parcels.

Those three property owners have rejected the city’s offers to pay the appraised value of the land, said Steven H. Dukett, the city’s redevelopment director.

The city will seek immediate possession, Dukett said, but legal proceedings to settle the price of the property could take more than two years. None of the property owners publicly challenged the condemnation at Monday’s meeting.

Rexhall Industries Inc., a Santa Clarita-based mobile home builder, is negotiating with the city to move to a 10-acre site in the new Lancaster industrial park.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the council agreed to pay $345,000, including relocation benefits, to the owners of an 11-unit motel on Sierra Highway just north of Lancaster Boulevard, and $400,000 for a nearby Sierra Highway parcel on which a vacant commercial building stands.

These parcels are part of the 7 1/2 acres the city is acquiring for a new 30,000-square-foot sheriff’s station.

Dukett said the city hopes to complete its acquisition of this acreage through purchases or condemnation by the end of the year so that construction of the sheriff’s station can begin in mid-1994.