Study Proposed to Inventory, Evaluate Use of Government-Owned Sites

Some are gutted, vacant and dusty. Others are merely underused.

But since no one knows how many government-owned buildings and chunks of land in Simi Valley could be put to better use, officials proposed Tuesday to launch a study to find out.

Supervisor Judy Mikels and school board member Dr. Caesar Julian have sent a letter to City Manager Mike Sedell asking for help to form a Public Real Estate Asset Task Force.

The group--made up of officials from Simi Valley and Ventura County agencies that own property here--would inventory public holdings that are unused or underused. And it would recommend how to save money by closing, swapping or selling off such buildings and parcels between government agencies or in deals with private investors or tenants.

“Before we start talking about viable options [for sale, trade or transfer], we have to know what we have and what shape it’s in,” Julian said Tuesday.

The task force would review property owned by the city and school district, as well as the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, Calleguas Municipal Water District and El Rancho Simi Cemetery District, which are also to receive copies of the letter.

The letter asks each agency to review its own land and buildings in detail for the task force so that all agencies in the city will know what is available.

“Perhaps there’s a trade out there. Nobody really knows what everyone else’s goals and needs are,” said Keith Jajko, aide to Mikels, who will help coordinate the task force. “Maybe by sitting down at a table, a need for one agency will pop up where another agency might be able to help out. . . . We’re very excited about this. Who knows what we’ll find.”

Sedell said he will review the request, and talk more with Julian and Mikels about how the task force would work, then make a recommendation to the City Council on what role the city should play in the study.

The idea sprang from the Simi Valley Unified School District’s Board of Trustees, which last week began surveying district-owned land and buildings to see what could be put to better use.

Assistant Supt. David M. Kanthak recommended last month that the board consider selling such sites as Santa Susana Elementary School and the district headquarters building on Cochran Street.

Kanthak also suggested that the district could raise money to fix its aging schools by selling its 36-acre cornfield at Tapo Canyon Road and Alamo Street, which has been on the market for several years, or by getting rid of two of the district’s four shuttered elementary schools.

At least one public official wondered Tuesday whether it is legal for agencies to give up total or partial control of their holdings to other agencies.

“My problem with that is that the school district has a responsibility for our properties,” schools trustee Diane Collins said. “I don’t know how it would work if the county and the city shared responsibility. I’m not sure it’s even legal when you talk about assessing the value of a school the district owns.”

Collins said she worries that by selling off a school building, the district could be giving up “something that we are expected to protect for our students.”

“I think it’s positive and beneficial to work closely with the other agencies,” she said. “But because I’m not sure exactly what they have in mind, I have to take a wait-and-see attitude.”

Taking stock of public property is not a new idea in Ventura County.

The proposal by Julian and Mikels echoes a study completed last month by a citizens task force that surveyed all the land owned by Ventura County.

The volunteer group of land-use experts and real estate brokers reviewed 11,000 acres of county-owned land and found that 7,225 acres on 26 parcels could be better used, leased to private parties or even sold to save money for taxpayers.

The county land in question lies at such places as Oxnard and Camarillo airports, the County Government Center, Matilija Reservoir and River Ridge Golf Course.

The office of Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester is reviewing and revising the task force’s report for final presentation to the Board of Supervisors, said Jajko, who served as staff aide on the county report as well.