BERMITE CLEANUP PONDERED CITY TO STUDY OTHER SITE PLANS.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SAUGUS - From the window in her office in the City Hall planning division, Lisa Hardy can see the Bermite property - green rolling hills that belie decades of ground and water contamination.

``I can see the land from here,'' Hardy, a project planner for the city, said Monday. ``It looks like pretty green open space, but it's not. It's polluted on the surface;, it's polluted underground. It needs to be addressed.''

Those 1,000 acres in the heart of the city are the sole item set for discussion when the Santa Clarita City Council holds a study session at 5:30 p.m. today in the Century Room of City Hall, 23920 Valencia Blvd.

During the special meeting, city planners will review efforts nationwide to clean contaminated properties for redevelopment. Those efforts can be used as a guide as the city monitors the cleanup of the defunct Bermite munitions plant in Saugus and oversees construction there of a 3,000-home development called Porta Bella.

``Where we've seen success stories are where the municipalities have taken a leadership role,'' Hardy said. ``There have been successful remediations all over the nation where the city was supportive of the redevelopment plan.''

Working in the city's favor is a landowner with a financial stake in the redevelopment, something most municipalities with polluted acreage don't have, said Jeff Lambert, director of planning and building services for Santa Clarita.

The property is owned by Remediation Financial Inc. and its development partner, Santa Clarita LLC. RFI bought the property - and the approved development plan - from Whitaker Corp., owner of the Bermite munitions factory, which closed in the early 1980s.

``When other local jurisdictions have sites like Porta Bella in their community, one of the greatest hurdles is finding that private developer and private funding,'' Hardy said. ``We have that, but one of the statements we make is that Santa Clarita LLC, or any other developer, couldn't do it without city support.''

It's in Santa Clarita's best interest to facilitate the cleanup, Lambert and Hardy said. Plans call for building four major highways across the land while Santa Clarita LLC moves forward with Porta Bella - a community of about 3,000 homes, shopping areas, parks and an elementary school. The council approved the project in 1995, pending the cleanup.

Lambert suggests the city look at financing plans for the project to move it along. Identifying a redevelopment area or creating a Mello Roos tax district - in which property taxes can be levied to finance infrastructure, and paid off by selling bonds - are options, he said.

``We need to see where the council wants us to be in pursuing this cleanup,'' he said.

The planners surely will face some opposition, especially if they urge public financing for the project, said Connie Worden Roberts, chairwoman of the Porta Bella Citizen Advisory Committee. ``They do seem to be asking the city to step up to the plate with money,'' Worden Roberts said. ``I absolutely do not think the city should be a financial partner in Porta Bella.''

Planners also likely will urge the council to change its original development agreement to allow phased development - construction in areas once they are certified by the state Department of Toxic Substances as clean.

Santa Clarita LLC says the phasing is critical to its plan because the sale of cleaned land would help finance the continued cleanup of the entire property.

Scores of chemicals have been found on the property and residue from rocket fuel has contaminated Santa Clarita's ground water.