The 2.5-acre property at 19848 Prospect Road has divided the council ever since the city purchased it from the Grace United Methodist Church for $4.5 million in July 2002. Mayor Norman Kline, Councilman Nick Streit and Councilwoman Kathleen King want to sell the property, but Vice Mayor Aileen Kao and Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith, along with an organized group of concerned residents, want the city to retain it.

Kline, King and Streit say the revenue from the sale will replenish the city's General Fund and pay for infrastructure improvements and maintenance. Kao and Waltonsmith want the property retained for community use.

The city council voted 3-2 on March 1 to sell the property to developer Mike Masoumi for $7 million. Masoumi wants to tear down the old church buildings and replace them with nine homes. But an impending drive to hold a referendum on the sale prompted Kline to call a special meeting of the council on March 9.

At that meeting, the council agreed to overturn the agreement with Masoumi passed a week before and allow the voters to decide the fate of the North Campus in June. This means sale opponents will not have to gather the 2,000 signatures necessary to qualify for a referendum by November.

City Clerk Cathleen Boyer estimated printing costs to include the North Campus on the June ballot as $93,000, but, if rebuttals to both sides of the issue were not included, it could cut $10,000 off those costs.

When the initial $7 million agreement with Masoumi was being finalized at the end of last month, word got around of a petition drive to gather signatures for a referendum on the sale. City staff offered Masoumi a $500,000 discount to keep him at the table in case enough signatures were gathered for a referendum, which would most likely go forward in November.

But now that the council overturned that initial deal, a new deal has been made that offers Masoumi the North Campus property for $6.75 million if voters authorizes the sale of the land on the June ballot.

The city also agreed to waive $75,000 in inspection and improvement fees and have the Public Works Department perform about $125,000 of work that Masoumi would otherwise be required to pay for.

However, if voters oppose the sale, then all agreements with Masoumi are off and the city retains the property.

Resident Jack Mallory said that he hopes Saratogans will vote against selling the North Campus, although there is no plan in place for what to do with property if that is the case. "This town needs land for its future," Mallory said. "The city has come to a better realization that they need to look to the citizens for guidance. When the city gets through this financial crunch and as financial times improve, then we'll be pleased that we saved this land."

A vote in June means the issue will be decided before the general elections in November when Kline, King and Streit come to the end of their terms. It is Streit's second term, and he is expected to follow precedent and not run for reelection.

"The voters can resolve this in June and keep it from being an election issue," Kline said. "This gives the citizens a clean shot to decide this issue once and for all."

Kline said it would also be better to get the divisive issue settled before the city's 50th anniversary celebration in September.

Waltonsmith and Streit were on the council when the city purchased the land from Grace United Methodist Church in 2002. Kline and King were elected to the council shortly after the purchase.

When the city bought the property, it did so below cost with an understanding with the church that the land would be retained for community use. The intent was to move the Saratoga Senior Center to the North Campus and move the sheriff's office to the current senior center building at 19655 Allendale Ave. But with no new money forthcoming from the city, senior center members decided not to relocate because of the high cost of the move and the high cost of renovations needed at the North Campus. The sheriff's office moved to Cupertino, and the city of Saratoga found itself maintaining an unused property during a downturn in the economy.

"The church sold the property below cost to give to the community in good faith," Waltonsmith said. "I don't think we should sell it until we really give our staff and our city a chance to see how useful it is. Then once the people have spoken, we can hopefully move on to other issues."

Kline said talk of a deal with the church to retain the North Campus for community use was only talk. He said the city council of the time would not have voted to buy the property if there were such a contractual obligation, and in fact, a member of the council then had called the property a "land bank" that could be sold if necessary. "If a promise to the church was made, it was not included in the contract," Kline said. "If that were true, all it would have taken was one sentence in the contract.

"If the voters decide to keep it," Kline continued, "then the issue becomes what do we do with it."