3,000-HOME PLAN REVISITED; PROJECT ON BERMITE LAND MIGHT GET EARLY START.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

The development of 3,000 homes on the 1,000-acre Bermite site might be allowed in phases as the land is cleaned of toxins, a philosophical change that could save the city more than $2.5 million and advance plans for a new highway across the land.

A complex set of circumstances has set the stage for possible reconsideration of the Santa Clarita City Council's development agreement with the property owner, city Planning Director Vince Bertoni said. The agreement includes a requirement that the entire former site of a munitions factory be certified as clean of toxins before development is allowed on any portion of the acreage.

The city has paid the landowner $1 a year since 1996 to lease a Metrolink station built at the base of the Bermite land. That agreement will expire in April, when the city must buy the station if no Porta Bella tract maps have been filed by then, Bertoni said. The cost of the station in 1995 was estimated at $2.5 million, which is certain to be higher this spring.

Also, an extension of Golden Valley Road through the Bermite land is needed to help relieve the city's increasing traffic problem and to serve a much-needed new high school, planned west of the property, Bertoni said.

``Those are indeed bargaining chips for the developer,'' said Bertoni.

Landowner Remediation Financial Inc. has asked the city to alter the development agreement, which prohibits development of the 3,000-home Porta Bella in phases, with construction starting on each phase as soon as its portion of the land is certified clean by the state Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Toxics Control.

In a letter to potential investors, Remediation Financial's broker wrote that the company anticipates changes in the agreement with the city that would allow phased development.

Bertoni said the city planning staff will negotiate with the landowner before making a recommendation to the City Council.

State investigators are making a piece-by-piece study of the hilly land at the heart of the city. In interviews late in 1998, an investigator said actual cleanup likely wouldn't begin for a year.

On Tuesday, the city Planning Commission will review the city's plan for the Golden Valley Road extension that would serve the proposed Golden Valley High School, planned by the William S. Hart Union High School District.

The commission also will discuss potential modification of the Porta Bella development agreement because the issues are linked, Bertoni said. The commission will meet at 7 p.m. in City Hall Council Chambers, 23920 Valencia Blvd., and public comments will be heard.

``We need to go through the whole process, evaluating things from the environmental standpoint,'' Bertoni said. ``We'll gather information, sit down with the developer and take back what we learn to the Planning Commission and then to the City Council.''