Lancaster Urged to Block Prison With Suit

Opponents of a state prison planned for Lancaster said Thursday that the city should file suit to block construction of the prison, which cleared a key bureaucratic hurdle this week despite community protests.

The state Department of Corrections will inform the governor’s office today that the department has approved an environmental report on the prison, to be built near Avenue J and 60th Street West, a department spokeswoman said. The $200-million, 2,200-bed, maximum- and medium-security facility is planned for a 232-acre site next to a County Jail that houses 1,600 inmates.

Department spokeswoman Christine May said construction would not begin until at least June.

But Antelope Valley political and business leaders said their two-year battle against the proposal has laid the groundwork for a lawsuit challenging the state environmental report on the prison. They have 30 days in which to take legal action against the prison, which has spurred opposition from the community and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents Antelope Valley, said he would ask county lawyers to consider taking legal action to block the prison. He said the county may join the city of Lancaster in a lawsuit.

“There is a very strong possibility” that the county will fight the state over the prison, Antonovich said. “There is still an opportunity to find another location.”

Lancaster Councilman George Theophanis called for the council to move quickly with a lawsuit.

“The people of Lancaster have mandated us to fight this,” Theophanis said. “They are 100% against it.”

Real estate agent Kristi Padgett, who is president of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and a member of a citizens committee fighting the prison, said a lawsuit seeking to block the prison’s construction would probably succeed because officials ignored flaws in the environmental report.

Padgett said the prison’s location is ludicrous because it is in the path of residential growth in northwest Lancaster. She and other opponents have criticized the report’s conclusions that the prison would not lower property values or strain the water supply. They contend that the prison’s floodlights and public address system would disrupt the neighborhood, contrary to the report’s findings.

May said the Department of Corrections hopes the community will accept the prison but would not be surprised by a lawsuit. She said officials believe the environmental impact report is sound.

Even if a lawsuit challenging the environmental report were to succeed, it would not necessarily block construction. Opponents would still have to overturn legislation that designates the Lancaster site for a new prison, said Danielle Marvin Lewis, head of the citizens committee.