Schools Sue to Block East Tustin Mini-City

‘The bottom line to me is I don’t know why the Irvine Co. and the city are trying to give us less than what we need for those kids.’

--Tustin School Supt. Maurice A. Ross

Saying that plans for a $1-billion mini-city in East Tustin fail to provide for adequate schools, education officials Monday filed a legal challenge in Orange County Superior Court to the Irvine Co. development and Tustin’s approval of it.

The bid to halt Phase 2 of the huge Tustin Ranch development, which is designed to include 8,000 housing units, came from the Tustin Unified School District.

“We are happy to see growth that is positive,” Supt. Maurice A. Ross said. “This whole thing should be a positive experience, and instead we’re fighting to keep adequate school sites. They should want it to be positive. They should want adequate schools.”

The district sought a temporary restraining order that would have barred the Tustin City Council from approving a final tract map for Phase 2, which includes land between the Santa Ana Freeway and Irvine Boulevard. Superior Court Commissioner Eleanor Palk denied the request but scheduled a hearing next month on the district’s overall challenge to development.

At the regular City Council meeting Monday night, the Irvine Co. agreed to a one-week delay in the city’s approval of the tract map.

The Irvine Co. also asked that the council postpone annexation of the property until July 1, 1988. Representatives of the development firm said more time is needed to revise an annexation report.

Earlier in the day, Tustin City Atty. James Rourke and lawyers for the Irvine Co. had argued in Superior Court that plans for the East Tustin development had been thoroughly reviewed.

“We think it’s unfortunate that the district feels that this type of legal action is necessary,” said Monica Florian, vice president of the Irvine Co. “I would hope that the long history of our meeting and working with both the city and the school district would be an illustration of how serious we are in ensuring that adequate schools are supplied in East Tustin.”

School lawyer Robert Parker said new fees imposed this year by the Legislature on new residential developments to help pay for schools will cover just 10% of the cost of the eight schools needed for the Tustin Ranch area.

“The bottom line to me is I don’t know why the Irvine Co. and the city are trying to give us less than what we need for those kids,” Ross said.

“That’s their city, and that’s the company that’s trying to sell houses, and they (shouldn’t) want an inadequate site. I sure fail to see their logic.”

The Irvine Co. development covers 1,740 acres. It is expected to boost Tustin’s 41,000 population to more than 60,000 by the year 2000. Plans call for developing three business and shopping centers, a golf course, hiking and pedestrian trails and seven parks.

Disputed in court Monday was a 50-acre tract set aside for a 16-acre city park and 34-acre high school site. School officials also directed barbs at the city, saying that municipal officials have failed to provide an additional six acres of land allegedly needed to provide a minimum 40-acre high school site.

Ross said minimum state standards dating from 20 years ago call for 41.6 acres for a new high school site.

“Compared to our other schools, it would be a second-class facility,” Ross said. “If 41.6 acres were needed in the ‘60s, it’s just barely adequate today.”

Irvine Co. lawyer Robert Break told Commissioner Palk the development firm has already spent $2 million on the second phase of Tustin Ranch development. He argued that the firm would incur substantial costs and building delays if the city council were barred from voting Monday night.

The lawsuit alleges that the development violates the city’s general plan, which requires adequate schools to accompany any new building.

At the heart of the flurry of legal activity is money, both sides acknowledged.

Rourke, for the city, suggested that the district wants to “slow this (development) up” in a bid to obtain more funding.

Land Offered for $3 Million

Talks between the city and district over the division of the 50-acre tract have taken place throughout the year. Last week, according to Parker, the city offered to sell the district the six acres it wants for an estimated $3 million.

“The city made an offer this last week, to sell it at fair market value,” Parker said. “They’re trying to make maybe $3 million off the district from money we don’t have.”

Florian said there are many different ways the city and the district could share the 50-acre tract.

Rough estimates place the total cost of eight new schools at $120 million, with just $12 million coming from fees on new development, Parker said.

The Irvine Co. has been working with the district “to prepare a comprehensive facilities-and-financing plan for all schools in East Tustin,” Florian said, with varied sources of funding being studied.

The city approved the overall development last year after three years of study. Individual maps for each phase of the development must be approved as work progresses.

Rourke said that the city “is under an absolute legal obligation to approve any final map that the City Council finds is in conformity” with tentative tract maps.

City officials have already tentatively approved the Phase 2 map.

Times staff writer La Mont Jones Jr. contributed to this story.