Car Dealer Says No Deal to LAPD for Land

Decade-old plans to build a sixth police station in the San Fernando Valley hit another snag when DaimlerChrysler rejected the city’s offer to buy its Mission Hills property, officials said Tuesday.

City officials said they hope talks resume, but they also are considering court action against the auto giant, and looking at other sites.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, whose district includes the site, urged the Los Angeles Police Department on Tuesday to abandon its pursuit of the property at 11121 Sepulveda Blvd. and seek another nearby parcel.

“DaimlerChrysler doesn’t want to give up the location, so we’re going to have to go through a long process,” Bernson said, adding that he asked the LAPD to look instead at a nearby privately owned parcel on San Fernando Mission Road.

But police officials said they want a chance to make a second offer to DaimlerChrysler so as not to let the project fall by the wayside again.

The project “is absolutely essential,” Chief Bernard Parks said. “We believe at some point in the near future the Valley should have a minimum of eight stations to bring the response times down, to get more resources and to better address problems.”

But Robert Beehler, the real estate manager for DaimlerChrysler, said he will turn to the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn. for political support.

“I am still trying to hang on to my property,” Beehler said. He said the car company will send the city a letter indicating that it may be prepared to fight the takeover in court.

A court battle could delay acquisition for two years.

The five existing Valley police stations each cover an average of 45 square miles, more than twice the area policed by non-Valley stations, Parks said.

But the proposal to add another station has been plagued by problems. The sixth Valley station was promised by city officials as part of a 1989 police bond measure, but the money dried up before the department could fulfill that promise. The LAPD brass promised the station again as part of a police bond measure on the ballot last year, but voters rejected it after some Valley leaders noted that the city had not fulfilled its promise in 1989.

Although the City Council has allocated $4 million for the purchase and environmental studies, officials will need to find an additional $17 million to construct the police station.

Late last year, DaimlerChrysler bought the three-acre site to build a car dealership, just as Los Angeles officials decided it would make a good central location for a police station.

The car company initially even refused to allow the city to conduct soil tests but gave in only after the city went to court to gain access.

Although the tests have not been completed, the city made an offer of $3 million for the property, about what DaimlerChrysler paid for the land. The company flatly rejected the proposal, according to Yvette Sanchez-Owens, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Facilities Division.

Attorneys for the car company told the city that they incurred many other expenses in market and site studies involving the parcel, which city officials have taken as an indication that the firm is open to additional talks, although none have occurred since the rejection.

Meanwhile, the city is going ahead with plans to hire an architect to begin design work so a project will be ready to break ground if a deal is reached, Sanchez-Owens said. Construction would take 18 months.

“It’s important because it has impacts on reducing response times,” said Police Commissioner Raquelle de la Rocha, a Valley attorney. “The response-time issue is too important to let this drag on any longer.”

Councilman Alex Padilla, who also represents part of Mission Hills, urged patience to let talks with DaimlerChrysler resume.

“We will continue to negotiate,” Padilla said. “I still think it’s an ideal site for this police station. The needs haven’t changed. “I’m confident we will work something out.”