Norco moving cautiously on developing former weapons-testing site

The 430-acre parcel, still plagued by environmental problems, was sold recently and is seen as a place for commercial development, but what ends up being built there is impossible to say just yet

It might be one of the most unusual pieces of commercial property anywhere, certainly in the Inland Empire.

Four hundred and thirty acres in Norco bordered by three schools: Norco High, Norco Intermediate and Norco Elementary.

Earlier this month, Lansing Cos., a commercial development firm in San Diego announced that it had bought the property on Hillside Avenue from CACERF Norco LLC, a consortium of six national banks.

The sale was closed in late December, and cost of the property would remain confidential, said Greg Lansing, the developer’s president and chief executive officer.

Immediately after the purchase was made public, Lansing announced that representatives from his company would meet with Norco officials to discuss what might be developed there.

Any decision, he cautioned, was a long way off.

“It’s a big site, and we don’t have any idea what will go there,” Lansing said when the transaction was announced. “We want to get as much community input as we can before we do anything.”

Sounds like an ordinary deal between a developer and a government entity. However, the property Lansing Cos. bought anything but ordinary. The site has a history of environmental problems and lawsuits attached to it, and Lansing Cos. may have made one of the riskiest purchases of its 30 years in business.

El Segundo-based Wyle Laboratories used the site to test various defense and aerospace products from 1959 through 2004, activities that left the property, if not a toxic waste dump, then unsuitable for development without a major cleanup.

Wyle, a high-tech company that specializes in testing equipment under stress, does much of its work for the federal government. Company officials admitted to using some toxic chemicals at the Norco site but denied that any of their tests were dangerous to nearby residents.

But tests by two government health agencies found otherwise.

The California Department of Toxic Substance Control, which has overseen cleanup of of the site since 2003, found trichloroethylene, a cancer-causing agent, at levels nearly 130 times higher than the state’s limit for drinking water.

That chemical, which is used to clean hydrogen and oxygen tanks and can remove grease from metal surfaces, causes headaches and respiratory problems, according to published reports.

Riverside County Health officials also found hydrazine, a rocket fuel, in two wells on the site, as well as inaccurate chemical records at relate to the site and faulty training documents, according to reports.

Residents of two communities near the property, Stoneridge Estates and Hidden Valley, sued their developers, Centex Homes and Western Pacific Housing. They charged that both companies failed to tell homebuyers what Wyle had been doing at the site and of the potential health hazards there.

In April 2010, Norco changed the zoning on the property from “industrial special research” to “preservation and development,” which prevents houses from being built there. That designation does allow for commercial, mixed-use and office park projects, as well as resort and recreational uses, said Andy Okoro, Norco City Manager.

In May 2010, CACERF Norco filed a lawsuit in Riverside County Superior Court alleging that the zoning change left the site worthless and impossible to develop.

The court dismissed the suit, ruling that CACERF Norco had not proposed anything for the property that the city could evaluate, nor had its asked for a zoning change of its own. It also ruled that CACERF did not prove its claim that the change in zoning rendered the site worthless.

Today, the Wyle Property – its common designation in Norco – has improved, but it’s not entirely cleaned up and problems do remain.

The department of toxic substance control last August released a 149-page restoration plan, and perhaps as much as 80 percent of the site could be developed now, said Rick Hoffman, a Hemet-based consultant hired by Lansing Cos. to help it determine what can be built there.

“The cleaning up is moving along but it’s not quite finished,” said Hoffman, who consults on commercial and residential projects. “I would say that about 100 acres is too steep to be developed anyway, and the remaining property is still being worked on.”

Hoffman called the property “unique.” For an established city like Norco to have an open parcel so large under any circumstances, he said, is unusual.

The question is what to put there? Given its size and its freeway access – the property is near the crossing of Interstate 15 and the 91 Freeway – the site would seem ripe for commercial development, but no one on either side of the issue wants to show their hand early in the game.

The meeting between Lansing Cos. and Norco officials was held Feb. 13 at Norco City Hall, but the session lasted only 20 minutes and both sides left having agreed on only one thing: once the state declares the site safe for development, everyone would like to see something built there.

Lansing Cos. is committed to putting something on the site that helps Norco financially, but it has nothing specific in mind and has not proposed anything to city officials, according to Lansing.

The company, which manages more than 35,000 acres of commercial property in the southwest United States, plans to begin speaking to community members – particularly those who live close to site – within the next 30 days.

How long it takes both sides to agree on what to do there, and when any development might start, is impossible to say.

“We want to be cautious and get as much input from the community as we can before we decide what we’re going to do,” Lansing said. “I don’t want to say ‘I think we should do this’ because then the city might think I’m against anything they propose.”

Some opposition likely will emerge regardless of what the city and the Lansing Cos. decide they want to do with the site.

“On something of this size there’s always going to be some opposition, but we’re good at working with communities,” Lansing said. “Unfortunately, with development you can’t please everyone, but you can appease them.”