Saratoga News

News

The north campus vote was 5-0 to buy in 2002, now it's 3-2 to sell

Former council members still say it was a good deal

By Jason Sweeney

It was a unified Saratoga City Council that voted 5-0 to purchase the 2.5-acre North Campus property for $4.5 million from the Grace United Methodist Church. Four years later, a divided Saratoga City Council split 3-2 on March 1 to sell the city's North Campus property for $7 million.

The $7 million deal with developer Mike Masoumi was all but signed when residents mounted a petition drive to hold a referendum on the sale, which put the sale on hold. It seemed all but certain that the petitioners could gather the estimated 2,000 signatures it would take to hold a referendum on the sale in the November election.

The city council preempted the petitioners by putting the sale of the North Campus on the ballot in statewide primary and local elections on June 6. The reasoning for this was to keep the North Campus property from becoming a contentious issue in the November elections, when three council seats are up for grabs.

On the June 6 ballot, Saratogans will vote on Measure J to decide if the North Campus property should be sold to Masoumi for a discounted $6.75 million and devel oped into houses, or if that sale should be canceled. If canceled, the city must retain the property for a minimum of one year.

At the March 1 meeting of the city council, Mayor Norman Kline, Councilman Nick Streit and Councilwoman Kathleen King voted to sell the North Campus property. They want to use revenue from the sale to replenish the $4.5 million taken from the city's general fund and hillside reserves to purchase the property in 2002. They want to use the remainder of the revenue for such things as city infrastructure repairs and upgrades.

Vice Mayor Aileen Kao and Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith voted to retain the property. They say Grace United Methodist Church sold the North Campus to the city below market value so the property could be used for community use. They have also argued the city needs more space for community uses.

The former council

Of the five current council members, only Streit and Waltonsmith were on the council in 2002 when the city purchased the property. Evan Baker, Stan Bogosian and John Mehaffey were the other council members then. That council was unified in its decision to purchase the property, which has now become a political hot potato.

"The council was in 100 percent agreement on whether we were going to buy it," Baker said in a telephone interview. "It was a good decision and it was the right decision and I'll stand up for it without any equivocation.

"No one on the council voted to buy that land as a speculative real estate investment. It was purchased for community use. That was our intention from the get-go. It was purchased for community use, but that was not a condition of the purchase."

"Speaking for myself," Bogosian said, "I think it was a no-brainer and a good deal to buy it. The city was offered the property at a below-market rate. The desire of the church was for the property to be used for some kind of civic purpose. It was such a good deal I felt it would have been irresponsible for the city to pass it up. However, no promises were made by the council to the church concerning civic use."

"We realized it would deplete our reserves," Mehaffey said, "but it was a good deal. We had a budget surplus at the time and we were searching for additional parkland."

When the property was purchased, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department office was housed next to the post office on Allendale Avenue across from city hall. But the sheriff's department was in need of a larger facility.

"We were looking for ways to keep the sheriff's office in town," Baker said. "We were getting a huge bang for the dollar having the sheriff's office here. Cupertino had been romancing them to move to their city. The tentative plan then was to move the senior center to the North Campus and the sheriff's office to where the senior center is now."

After the property was purchased, it was determined initial estimates of the cost to bring the North Campus buildings into compliance with government regulations had been underestimated. Without the money for upgrades, the senior center remained at 19655 Allendale Ave. next to city hall. The sheriff's office moved to Cupertino.

With the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the terrorist attacks of 9-11 and a general downturn in the economy, the state of California was in financial trouble and began taking money from city coffers. Saratoga's finances took a turn for the worse.

A utility users tax measure was placed on the November ballot in 2004 in an effort to refill the city's depleted general fund. That measure was voted down.

Measure J

Since the North Campus property was purchased, it has been little utilized.

The former council members who voted to purchase the North Campus today have different opinions on the upcoming vote on Measure J.

"The general fund needs to be replenished," Bogosian said. "We're going to be like a third-world country because our infrastructure is deteriorating. We're all going to need SUVs to drive over all the chuckholes. When this vote goes to the community, we are going to have to decide--do we want to let things further deteriorate or do we want to raise taxes? If we decide to keep the North Campus, then as a community we have to pay for it."

"We need more building space for functions needed in the city," Baker said. "You are never going to lose money on that property. That land is never going to depreciate. When the streets get bad enough, people will vote to pay for the money to fix them. But you'll never get that property back. It will be gone forever."

"Right now the city is still struggling," Mehaffey said, "but the economy is turning around and the state and the county are returning money to the city. I'm in favor of keeping the North Campus and developing it when we have the funds to do so. Once it's been chopped up and turned into houses, you can't get it back."