CITY DELAYS ACCORD UPDATE ACTION COULD DERAIL SALE OF 996 ACRES.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - The City Council has 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 this week 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 Feb. 25.

``It wouldn't hurt to allow recent developments to be taken into consideration,'' said Mayor Frank Ferry.

Cherokee Investment Partners, one of the nation's most experienced remediation companies, has met with both Santa Clarita and officials from the Department of Toxic Substances Control, the state agency overseeing the cleanup.

The property near Soledad Canyon Road 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.

City Attorney Carl Newton acknowledged that a finding of noncompliance could make a sale less attractive.

Also complicating a potential sale of the 996-acre site is the DTSC's decision to order Simi Valley-based Whittaker Corp. to begin cleaning up the polluted site immediately or face legal action.

Managing Director Dwight Stenseth said last week that his company would be reluctant to purchase property being cleaned up by another firm.

Phoenix-based Remediation Financial Inc., which bought the site from Whittaker 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.

RFI Director of Development Gary Brown told the council that the company tried to meet the terms of the 1996 agreement, but failed when phased development was rejected.

``It's clear that we've been doing everything we can, but we don't have the resources to continue any further,'' Brown said.

Earlier this year, the city Planning Commission found that RFI had failed in four areas. RFI refused to provide any evidence of good faith compliance with the development agreement, refused to provide insurance protection to the city, failed to meet the terms of its clean-up agreement with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control and improperly attempted to terminate the city's right to use and occupy the Metrolink station.

Planning Director Jeff 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.

City officials do not believe Whittaker will willingly clean up the property to a high enough standard as to allow it to be redeveloped. Whittaker ceased operations on the property nearly 20 years ago.