BONELLIS CONSIDER OPTIONS SPEEDWAY OWNERS ARE OPEN TO IDEAS FOR SITE.

Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- Saugus Speedway's owners foresee hosting their popular swap meet for many years to come, but with an eye on planned and future developments ringing their property they are doing a little contingency planning.

The Bonelli family is exploring its options with Santa Clarita city planners.

``Our long-range business plan is to continue the swap meet ... maybe expanding it to be some open-air event center for the city of Santa Clarita,'' said Blake Bonelli, whose grandfather once owned the old racetrack, known for a time as Bonelli Stadium. ``If we were to bring back racing it could cost $5 (million) to $6 million if you were to put a stadium in on the same footprint that is there now.''

Bonelli is a minority shareholder in the 35-acre property along with seven other family members.

The former auto racetrack is not far from the contaminated 996-acre Whittaker-Bermite property where testing of rockets and explosives over 50 years left a legacy of contaminants in the soil and groundwater. The speedway's owners have contacted the Department of Toxic Substances Control -- charged with overseeing the extensive Bermite cleanup -- to determine if In large doses, perchlorate, a chemical used as the main ingredient in solid rocket fuel, has been linked to thyroid problems.

In June, Cherokee Investment Partners and SunCal Companies purchased the Bermite site for more than $63 million. City officials envision a conference-convention center or major regional sports facility at the site, which could eventually be a hub for the city's biomedical and entertainment industry.

Bonelli said he has no idea what the speedway property is worth and no plans are under way to sell it, but the family is open to offers.

``Never say never,'' he said. ``Anything's for sale at the right price.''

Flat acreage in the vicinity zoned for commercial development could be priced from $650,000 an acre and up, and land zoned for residential projects could start at $325,000 an acre, a local real estate agent said. The arena and parking lot cover a portion of the site's 28 flat acres; a hill accounts for about seven acres.

During the 1930s and '40s, crowds of 10,000 to 12,000 flocked to the dirt track to watch top racers duke it out. Today, 6,000 to 10,000 people descend on Sundays to stock up on plants, tools, toys and other essentials. The 12,000 bargain hunters who show up during holiday weekends give the heyday attendance records a run for their money.

Last weekend the Santa Clarita Senior Center held a wine and food-themed fundraiser at the arena, which also hosts annual home and garden and classic car shows.

Decades of weapons manufacturing and testing at the Bermite site north of Soledad Canyon Road deposited chemical residue in the aquifer, a main source of water for the Santa Clarita Valley.

Five water wells in the area that tested positive for perchlorate -- which is thought to be migrating west and northwest -- have been shut down and monitoring wells were dug nearby.

Sara Amir, chief of cleanup operations for the Southern California division of the DTSC, said the agency has agreed to investigate the speedway property per the owner's request. The agency would test the soil and groundwater for perchlorate and solvents, to determine if they spread from Bermite.

``If we find any contaminants we will see how widespread the contaminants are, how far they've gone down, whether they are posing any risk to the groundwater,'' Amir said. ``Based on that we will come up with a conclusion, and see if there's any further action we have to take.''

The agreement has not yet been finalized.

At a hearing in January before the Santa Clarita City Council, Bonelli requested that buyers in the 1,089-home River Village project -- separated from the speedway by the Santa Clara River and Soledad Canyon Road -- be notified that nighttime events can be noisy.

The council's approval of the project was contingent on the disclosure that current and potential uses at the arena could have noise impacts, said Marlee Lauffer, a spokeswoman for the project's developer, The Newhall Land and Farming Company.

judy.orourke(at)dailynews.com

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Owners of the Saugus Speedway and Santa Clarita city planners are working on possible uses for the site, although there are no plans to sell it.

David Crane/Staff Photographer