Hermosa Beach : Park Funds Allocated

The City Council voted Tuesday to use $127,000 that had been set aside for the development of a park at the former Prospect Heights School as a down payment on additional park land at the site. The price of the land must be negotiated with the city’s elementary school district, the property owner.

The council also voted to form a Prospect Park Development Advisory Committee to recommend what athletic facilities and landscaping should be provided at the park.

The city has already purchased eight parcels of land bordering Prospect Avenue between Hollowell Avenue and Gentry Street for a park. Twelve parcels at the school’s north end are being developed as single-family homes.

But the fate of another five parcels between the proposed park and the residences--a strip of land approximately 50 feet wide and 200 feet long--remains undecided.

The city has been unwilling to pay the full market value of $377,500 requested by the school district’s Board of Trustees for the lots, estimating instead that the land would be worth only $87,500 if sold as “open space” at a reduced market value.