CITY PROPOSES TO SELL 180 ACRES COUNCIL MUST OK SALE FOR $13.5 MILLION.

Byline: Jim Skeen  Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Lancaster's redevelopment agency is planning to sell 180 acres on the city's far west side for $13.5 million, a transaction described as one of the largest in recent memory for the agency.

If approved by the City Council on Tuesday, the agency will sell 180 acres south of Avenue H between 80th and 90th streets west to Tarzana-based Heller Development Cos.

``It's one of the largest transactions we've ever done,'' said Mark Bozigian, assistant to the city manager for redevelopment. ``It's a function of a hot housing market. The demand for housing is up in the valley and the developers are stepping up to the demand.''

Revenue from the transaction will go to the agency's low- and moderate- income housing fund.

The land has been zoned for 7,000- and 10,000-square-foot lots since 1990 and is subdivided into 631 lots.

The site had originally been earmarked for a large housing development in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but the project was derailed by the housing bust of the 1990s. The bulk of the property, 175 acres, was transferred to the redevelopment agency in the 1990s in exchange for 38 acres closer to the city's core.

One of the land exchanges involved 23 acres at Avenue J and 30th Street West, part of the former Legends tract that had been caught up in the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s. The land swap helped pave the way for the completion of the tract.

A second land sale is also planned for the council's Tuesday night meeting. In a separate transaction, the agency is planning to sell 10 acres at Avenue K-8 and 13th Street East to another home builder, the Taft Corp., for $300,000.

Taft Corp. plans to use the site, and an adjoining parcel, to create a 70-lot subdivision.

The 10 acres were once earmarked as an elementary school site by the Lancaster School District, but were later deemed surplus and transferred to the redevelopment agency in exchange for a portion of the Legends tract. The district used the Legends land to build Amargosa Creek Middle School.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com