1st Phase Is Planned for $25-Million Sports Complex : Recreation: Despite funding problems and easement questions on the Castaic site, the county hopes to break ground by the end of the year.

Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation officials are preparing to begin work on the first phase of a recreational sports complex for the Santa Clarita Valley.

Despite funding problems and questions over easements on the site, the county hopes to break ground by the end of the year on three multipurpose ball fields, picnic areas and a fitness par course as the first phase of the area’s first major recreational facility.

The complex will be off Tapia Canyon Road on county land north of Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho in Castaic.

“We’re very anxious to get this going,” said Jo Anne Darcy, a Santa Clarita city councilwoman and an aide to Supervisor Mike Antonovich. “There is such a desperate need. The children have no place to go.”

The first phase will be built with $750,000 the county received from state park bonds.

Under plans drawn up in 1987, the complex was eventually to include seven ball fields, picnic areas, hiking trails, tennis courts, a gymnasium and a swimming pool. It originally was to be built over a 10-year period, cost $30 million to $40 million and cover the entire 51-acre site.

Plans for the complex, however, have been scaled down to $25 million to $30 million, covering 25 to 30 acres. Darcy said officials hope to obtain funds from successful park bond issues and park fees from developers.

The project received a setback in November when county voters turned down an $817-million park bond measure that included $5 million for the complex.

Also complicating matters are questions over oil and mineral rights the federal Bureau of Land Management has leased to 55 parties from whom the county must first obtain easement rights, said Joe Camarillo, project coordinator for the county.

Some of the lessees were not aware they had an interest in the land. “We had to convince them that they were the legal heirs to the rights,” Camarillo said. “Then we had to convince them that they don’t want them, and that they should sign them over to us.”

In addition, areas of the site are crisscrossed by natural gas, oil, water and phone lines that must be located before construction can begin. “The utility companies contacted have told us that they are aware of the lines, but don’t know how deep they are,” Camarillo said.

The first phase of the project will be in the northwest portion of the site, where the easement problems are at a minimum.

The county originally intended to build $5 million of facilities in the first phase of construction, but decided to scale back those plans after the county bond measure failed.

The project can’t begin soon enough for Jeff Preach, president of the Castaic Chamber of Commerce, who chauffeurs his three young sons to as many as six different sporting events in the Santa Clarita area on Saturdays. Each trip totals about 15 miles, he said.

The prospect of nearby baseball and soccer fields makes him a very happy dad. “We’re just ecstatic,” he said. “We need it so bad.”