MISSION VIEJO : Council Holds Off Bidding on Property

In a last-minute move, the City Council decided against making an offer to buy an office building on a 3.2-acre parcel as a permanent spot for City Hall.

Just hours before the city staff was to deliver the offer on Friday, the council met in a closed session and voted 4 to 0 to reconsider whether to buy the property at 24800 Chrisanta Drive.

The action came five days after the council had voted unanimously to extend an offer to purchase the property for an undisclosed amount. City officials said the offer would have been for an amount close to the assessed value of the property--about $3.4 million.

Councilman Robert A. Curtis said that questions raised by city residents during the week led him to reconsider the offer. “They asked me,” Curtis said, “ ‘Why buy a 17-year-old building? Why not do the (City Hall project) right from the start?’ ”

The council has asked the city staff to do further research on the proposal to buy the property.

The city would have had to spend about $1.3 million to renovate the building. Curtis also said that the site is not large enough to meet the city’s future needs. “Why purchase this office and 2.3 acres when we know that we are going to outgrow it in two or three years?”

The building is two stories high and contains 32,000 square feet of space. It is the former home of the Mission Viejo Co. The property is owned by Viejo Ltd.

The city has expressed interest in including a Sheriff’s Department substation and a maintenance yard in a City Hall complex. Such a complex would require about 15 acres, Curtis said.

The issue will be discussed further at the April 9 council meeting, he said.