Local News in Brief : Dapplegray Plan OKd

The Rolling Hills Estates City Council on Tuesday approved an agreement with the Palos Verdes Peninsula School District giving the city the right to choose 10 acres of the former Dapplegray School site for use as parkland in exchange for the district’s right to develop 61 single-family homes on the remaining 32.9 acres.

If signed by the school district, the agreement will also give the city the right to purchase an additional 2.8 acres of the 42.9-acre site at fair market value. If the additional acreage is purchased, the scope of the project would be reduced to about 57 homes, or 1.91 units per acre.

The agreement also requires a future developer to make $250,000 worth of improvements, such as grading, utility connections, drainage and roadways on the parklands portion. The development will also contain bridle paths as required by the city. The school is at 3011 Palos Verdes Drive North.

Although specific recreational uses for the site have not been determined, City Manager Raymond B. Taylor told the council at a meeting last month that 10 acres could support a 6,000-square-foot community center, municipal stables with 112 stalls and three riding rings, a parking lot with 164 spaces, two regulation-size Little League fields, which could be converted to a soccer field in the off season, and 3.5 acres of open space.