Possible Sale of City Hall, Veterans Park Is Hot Topic

A closed-door discussion by City Council members over the possible sale of City Hall and Veterans Memorial Park has ignited speculation about the four-acre site’s fate.

Santa Paula officials met Aug. 4 under the auspices of the city’s Redevelopment Agency to discuss the “acquisition of real property,” which was identified as the park, City Hall and a small lot behind the building.

Interim City Manager Murray Warden said no firm purchase offers for the land have been received, but he did not rule out any future sale.

“Once we get a bona fide letter of interest from anybody, that will certainly be on the agenda,” he said, adding that he could not disclose the exact nature of the council’s discussion.

However, sources who asked not to be identified said the possibility of developing the site and moving City Hall to an office building, such as the former Wells Fargo Bank in the 700 block of Main Street, was being explored.

Municipal employees are scattered at several locations throughout the city and the Water Department is housed in a modular building behind City Hall, which faces Veterans Memorial Park across Ventura Street. A $300,000 proposed expansion of the building is on hold for lack of money.

“Yes, we’re cramped and eventually things need to be done,” Councilman Jim Garfield said. “We are trying to look at what we can do to relieve the pressure. . . . We either need to build where we are or we need to build somewhere else or buy another property.”

Garfield refused to comment on whether the city could acquire the three-story former Wells Fargo building built in the early 1980s. Some in town see the imposing structure as architecturally incongruous in quaint Santa Paula and have nicknamed it “the glass box.”

Les Maland, a former 25-year councilman, predicted that residents would protest the sale of Santa Paula’s main administrative building and development of the park, which acts as an unofficial town square that is the focus of community festivals and other events.

“I think they would be up in arms,” said Maland, who helped build the park’s war memorial a decade ago.

Construction began Monday on a 22-block downtown make-over designed to revitalize the tired retail core.

The work is intended to enhance the more than 20 historically significant buildings in the area, but City Hall is not among them. While the structure contains concrete remnants of a 1930s-era jail, it is not considered architecturally significant, said Planner Doug Nelson, who designed the improvement project.

John Nichols, co-chairman of the advisory committee that supervised the renewal plans, speculated that the land City Hall and Veterans Park sits on would be valuable for commercial uses. Both are adjacent to 10th Street, which doubles as the main highway to Ojai, and are close to a freeway onramp and offramp.

“That’s an entryway to downtown, too, that would be attractive to a developer,” Nichols said, while emphasizing that he has no knowledge of any municipal plans for the tract. “Maybe they think there would be a trade-off [of park land] with the new park that’s being developed.”

Part of the $3.5-million revitalization plan calls for a long linear park a block north of Main Street.

Elaine Musselman, Chamber of Commerce president and a downtown business owner, reacted cautiously when told of the council’s discussions.

“I don’t think [the park] is sacred or anything,” she said. “I would have to see the plans.”