County Sees Chatsworth as Site for Courthouse : Justice: The new structure would serve the West San Fernando Valley. Talks are planned this month on buying a parcel in an industrial area.

Los Angeles County is trying to buy land in the Chatsworth industrial area for use as a municipal courthouse serving the West San Fernando Valley, a court official said Friday.

Robert Quist, deputy administrator for the Los Angeles Municipal Court, said officials are meeting later this month with the landowner. The address of the property was not disclosed.

“While I have a parcel and a person I’m interested in, I don’t hold title and we haven’t agreed on a price,” Quist said.

The planned $36.9-million courthouse would be two to three stories high and require about 10 acres, he said.

The Chatsworth industrial area is bounded roughly by Corbin and Canoga avenues and Plummer and Nordhoff streets. Single-family residential neighborhoods exist south of Nordhoff and north of Plummer.

The industrial area contains several large vacant tracts, but a Los Angeles city planner familiar with the area declined to speculate on which might be targeted as a courthouse site.

The planner, Philip L. Hall, said county officials late last year asked about land in the Chatsworth industrial area and about Pierce College property at the southeast corner of De Soto Avenue and Victory Boulevard.

The county is not considering the Pierce College land or any other property in the southern end of the West Valley, largely because of its higher cost per acre, Quist said.

Hall said the county did not identify the Chatsworth property that it was considering. Quist said he would not disclose the location because he is in the early stages of negotiating with the landowner.

“It would be a disservice to everyone if we put information out in the press or anywhere, where people start drawing conclusions that there might be a courthouse down the corner from me” before the county obtains the land, Quist said.

The municipal courthouse would contain eight courtrooms and a detention facility for some criminal defendants. Municipal Court accommodates misdemeanor trials, felony arraignments and preliminary hearings.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the area, was out of town and could not be reached for comment Friday. Quist said he has not yet spoken to Bernson about a proposed site.

Court officials earlier were looking for a site in Reseda, where business activists are trying to find ways to induce economic development. But the only Reseda site that emerged was a city park next to the West Valley Division police station along Vanowen Street. Opposition from City Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents that area, scuttled the idea.

Picus said Friday that she is pleased the county has focused on the Chatsworth industrial area. “I think it’s a fine location,” Picus said. “I encourage them to pin it down in that general vicinity.”

Quist said he expects to disclose the site in a formal proposal to the County Board of Supervisors sometime this summer. The board would have to approve the site and authorize construction of the building.

Hall, the Los Angeles planner, said the county would probably need approval from the city, which has zoned most of the area for light-industrial and office uses.