City, Water Agency Near Agreement on Park Site

The Castaic Lake Water Agency and the city of Santa Clarita are close to a deal over 122 acres of land that civic leaders have long coveted as a site for a central park.

Although the deal is not yet final, Santa Clarita officials are already gleefully salivating over the future of the property they believe the Castaic Lake Water Agency will lease to them for $100 a year. The initial lease would be for 15 years.

“I told them I’d write a check from my own pocket,” said Rick Putnam, the director of parks and recreation for Santa Clarita. “It’s a great example of two public agencies working together.”

The deal is outlined in a memorandum of understanding between the city and the water agency that will be presented tonight to the board of directors of the Castaic Lake Water Agency.

General Manager Robert Sagehorn said the agency liked the idea of providing park space to the community. But the document shows the city would have to develop the site at its own expense.

“What is included in the memo of understanding is essentially the ground rules,” Sagehorn said. “The city has not yet prepared a plan of what they want to build.”

The arrangement would allow the city to move forward with plans to create tennis courts, youth sports fields and perhaps even an amphitheater to alleviate a critical shortage in recreational facilities for the burgeoning city.

The city government has vowed it will rely on public input to define specifically what will be constructed on the site. City officials have a fund set aside for park development from a bond measure passed overwhelmingly in 1992.

Should the measure pass tonight, it will be referred to the Santa Clarita City Council. From there, it would be subjected to an environmental review.

City officials have wanted the land for a central park since Santa Clarita was created in the late 1980s. The parcel, which was once owned by the city of Los Angeles and used as an alcoholic rehabilitation center, was purchased about five years ago by the water agency.

The site is divided into three mesas, one of which has been used for a water treatment plant.

Allowing homes to be built on the site might have caused problems for the agency, Sagehorn said. Although he stresses that the water treatment plant would be a good neighbor to any housing development in the area, he said that truck traffic to the site might spur complaints. Water treatment plants also use chemicals, which have prompted complaints from neighbors at plants in other urban areas.

“The desire of the agency is to create a buffer zone around the water treatment plant,” Sagehorn said.