Council to look at buying property

The Santa Clarita City Council plans to meet in closed session Tuesday to discuss negotiations to purchase a property up for sale by the Saugus Union School District, according to city documents.

The address listed in the documents, 28110 Wellston Drive, matches that of the vacant Bouquet Canyon Elementary School.

The city met June 26 in closed session to discuss the same property. The negotiations are for “prices and terms of payment,” but in closed session, so the city can’t comment, said Communications Manager Carrie Lujan.

Board President Chris Trunkey confirmed in June that the district is trying to sell the property.

The city has not formally reached out to the Saugus school district with intent to buy a property, said Nick Heinlein, the school district’s assistant superintendent of business services. Thus Saugus representatives would not attend the closed session meeting. It’s purely city business, he said.

“The situation is exactly the same as it was in June,” Trunkey said. “Our property is up for sale, and there’s a process that has to be followed where we notify other agencies it’s available. We’re hopeful an agreement can be reached, but the city has not approached us about purchasing the property.”

Saugus’ decision to put the property up for sale comes after a recommendation from the district’s 7-11 Advisory Committee in February. The committee formed in late 2017 to review the district’s “surplus properties” and provide a recommendation to the district board about the evaluated areas, with the vacant site on Wellston among them.

“We took a look at the Bouquet property, and the recommendation of the 7-11 committee was that the school district should look at disposing of that property,” Trunkey said.

The committee presented its findings to the school board Feb. 6, and on June 12, the board approved the recommendation to dispose of the property. The city then expressed interest in purchasing the property, Trunkey said.

The Saugus district is required by law to also notify other public agencies of the sale in case they are also interested. The city is only one of those agencies, as is Los Angeles County, Trunkey said.

In June 2010, the Saugus district closed the school after 30 years because of massive budget cuts. The closure saved the district an estimated $600,000 a year.

The site includes about 10 acres of school land next to Bouquet Canyon Park, and about 20 acres of vacant land surrounded by existing or planned residential areas.

“Our property is up for sale, and there’s a process that has to be followed where we notify other agencies it’s available. We’re hopeful an agreement can be reached, but the city has not approached us about purchasing the property.” Chris Trunkey,

Saugus Union School District board presdient