San Diego

The Beach Coalition for Farnum, a Pacific Beach community group, announced Wednesday that it would file a lawsuit to prevent the San Diego Unified School District from leasing the site of the former Farnum Elementary School to developers.

The school district is offering a 99-year lease for the 3.1-acre site at 4275 Cass St. to raise at least $250,000 a year. The income would be used to pay off bonds sold to raise money for school construction in other parts of the city, said Larry K. Lester, president of the Board of Education. New schools or improvements are needed in the Mid-City, Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch areas, he said.

But Charles Grim, a member of the Beach Coalition’s board, said new apartments or condominiums at the site would increase traffic congestion in the area. “The community is totally against a dense housing development there because it’s close to the beach and we’re inundated with traffic, especially at holiday time and on weekends,” Grim said.

The group also opposes the 99-year lease. “We don’t think the school board can see ahead 99 years” to predict the future needs of the community, Grim said.

Farnum was closed in June, 1983, because of declining enrollment. The building was used by the Mission Bay Montessori Academy and the San Diego Community College District North Shores Adult School until last June, but is now vacant, a school district spokesman said.

Grim said the suit will claim that the school district violated state law by failing to involve the community in the decision to lease the site. But Christina Dyer, the district’s general counsel, said that a committee that held public hearings on school closings in 1982 fulfilled the district’s obligation to hear community members’ opinions.

The suit, scheduled to be filed in early December, would be the second seeking to block district plans to lease a former school site to developers. A suit filed by the Community Coalition for Dana to prevent the lease of the former Dana Junior High School in Point Loma is pending in court. Its outcome could affect the fate of Farnum elementary.