Official Backs Chatsworth Court Near Residential Area : Construction: Judicial Administrator Robert Quist says it could cost $10 million less than building at alternative location.

It would be cheaper to build a West Valley courthouse at the intersection of Winnetka Avenue and Plummer Street than on an alternative site preferred by some Chatsworth residents, a Los Angeles Municipal Court administrator says.

The alternative site, now occupied by a defunct tool company, would be less expensive to purchase.

But Robert Quist, deputy administrator for the Municipal Court, said it would cost $7 million to $10 million more to build and operate a courthouse on that land.

Based on that estimate, Quist plans to recommend to the County Board of Supervisors Tuesday that the county obtain an option to buy the 9.3-acre Winnetka-Plummer property from real estate developer Alexander Haagen.

He will also ask the county to begin studying the environmental impact of building there.

However, a city official and Chatsworth residents who live adjacent to the Haagen property are skeptical of the cost estimates cited by Quist, saying that he has been biased in favor of buying Haagen’s land throughout the search for a courthouse site.

They said that county officials have done all they can to eliminate the alternative site from consideration--first by misrepresenting its purchase price, then by inflating the costs of demolishing existing structures.

Now they think that county officials used flawed methodology to inflate the cost of building and maintaining a courthouse on the nine-acre property, which is located at 9200 Mason St. and owned by Allegretti & Co.

“I find too many bureaucrats like yourself that make a decision and try to go backwards to defend it,” Greig Smith, an aide to City Councilman Hal Bernson, told Quist at a community meeting at Cal State Northridge on Thursday.

Bernson supports his constituents’ desire to build the courthouse at the Allegretti site.

“It’s fine to have a courthouse in Chatsworth, but not next to a residential neighborhood,” Jim Anderson, a Chatsworth resident, told Quist. Anderson asserted that the county has an “ultimate, end goal” of building on the Haagen site.

Quist explained the higher costs associated with the Allegretti site by saying a courthouse built there “would have to be long and narrow because of the configuration of the land.”

That would result in an L-shaped structure with a larger outer surface area which would be more expensive than the compact, squarish facility that could be put on the Haagen site, he said.

Based on a preliminary analysis of the two possible designs, a Seattle-based design consulting firm hired by the county said it could cost up to 15% more in materials to build on the Allegretti site.

Using that figure, county staff estimated it would cost $4.3 million to $6.5 million more in materials and $1.2 million to $2.8 million more for utilities over 25 years, Quist said.

A spokesman for the design consulting firm said the day after the meeting that he had been ordered by the county not to comment on any aspect of the court designs or the cost estimates.

Smith contested the estimate, saying “it wasn’t scientifically done” and that he had shown the figures to several developers who all concluded that they were “very off-base.”

Although the developers--whom Smith declined to identify--said the Allegretti site might be slightly more expensive to build on, they did not think the difference would be as much as Quist estimated.

Despite vocal complaints from the Chatsworth residents, court administrators have been negotiating with Haagen--a major contributor to county supervisors’ political campaigns--over the site at least since March.

Haagen purchased the land last December for about $9.5 million.

However, in September, the county supervisors ordered court officials to reconsider the Allegretti site, after Steve Farley, executive vice president of Allegretti & Co., wrote a letter saying that the property had been unfairly eliminated because court officials misrepresented its price.

The county’s Internal Services Department had estimated its worth at $16 million, but Farley said the company was willing to sell for less.

Quist said the initial county report was based on the appraised value of the land, and he said Farley never contacted him to offer a better price.

The internal services report also estimated that it would cost $2.8 million to clear the Allegretti land before construction could begin there.

But Farley said a demolition firm he contacted offered to do the job for $280,000.

Farley said last week he is troubled by the county’s estimate of the massive difference in building costs.

Farley, Smith and residents who live near the site said they plan to share their concerns at the county supervisors’ meeting Tuesday.