BERMITE DECISION PUT OFF AGAIN CITY WANTS TO AVOID SALE COMPLICATIONS.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The City Council voted once again to put off deciding whether the current owners of the defunct Bermite explosives factory failed to meet the terms of the 2,911-home Porta Bella development agreement.

The council members agreed Tuesday that any action could complicate the sale of the polluted property in the center of Santa Clarita to a North Carolina firm that is considering purchasing the land. The council is scheduled to review the matter again on May 13.

Cherokee Investment Partners, one of the nation's largest remediation companies, has been working with Santa Clarita city officials to create a vision for the redevelopment of the hilly property, including some balance of homes along with commercial and industrial buildings, officials said.

``I believe that Cherokee is working toward a responsible solution, and we should give them the additional time they need,'' said Councilman Bob Kellar. ``I've been very impressed with Cherokee's willingness to come to the table with the city.''

The City Council voted in November to delay any action until Cherokee decided whether to purchase the property, which is not expected for another two or three months, company officials said.

Also Tuesday, the City Council agreed to spend an additional $200,000 on consultants working on the plan to clean up and redevelop the contaminated property. The city has already spent $300,000 on the effort, which officials said has brought real momentum to the cleanup effort for the first time in several years.

`You can't solve a multimillion-dollar headache with $50,'' Kellar said. ``This is crucially important funding,'' Kellar said. On March 9, Kellar and city Planning Director Jeff Lambert will travel to Cherokee's corporate headquarters in North Carolina and Colorado to meet with officials and get a sense of the company's operations. Initially scheduled for last week, the trip was delayed by the heavy snow that blanketed the East Coast.

``This is part of our due diligence process,'' Lambert said.

An agreement laying out a conceptual development plan for the site could be brought to the City Council as early as April, Kellar said.

Cherokee officials have said such an agreement would need to be in place before they finalize their purchase of the property near Soledad Canyon Road. The acreage is contaminated with several dozen toxic chemicals and unexploded ordnance waste left over from decades of weapons manufacturing for the U.S. military.

The groundwater beneath the site is contaminated with perchlorate, a byproduct of rocket fuel that has been linked to thyroid disease.

Lambert and other officials have told the City Council that the city's best chance of cleaning up the property and stemming the pollution of the Saugus Aquifer hinges on a quick sale of the site to a company with the resources and motivation to clean and develop the site, such as Cherokee.

Phoenix-based Remediation Financial Inc., which bought the site from Simi Valley-based Whittaker Corp. in 1999, had hoped to develop the former munitions factory into the Porta Bella subdivision, complete with homes, businesses and a center-city road network.

But the company's plan fell apart in 2001 when the City Council refused to allow the property to be developed in phases, as each section was certified as clean by state officials. Soon after, the firm's local development company ran out of money, work stopped and RFI put the 996-acre site up for sale.

The city and RFI are entangled in several lawsuits, with each accusing the other of failing to honor the 1996 development agreement. Cherokee officials have said they are considering tossing out the Porta Bella plan in favor of a more environmentally sensitive design that could include fewer homes.