Conejo Valley District Sues to Get More Land for School Site

The Conejo Valley Unified School District has filed a lawsuit against the city of Thousand Oaks in an attempt to get more land for a continuation high school, a school bus yard and warehouse.

Under a May 2 agreement between the city and Shapell Industries of Beverly Hills, about 14.5 acres of the 1,862-acre MGM Ranch development was set aside for the school district. Shapell plans to build a 100-acre industrial park and about 800 houses and 400 apartments on the property near the northwest corner of the city.

The school district claims in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in Ventura Superior Court that a 1987 environmental impact report for the Shapell project is invalid. School officials said the report assumed that the district would receive two separate sites--an 8.6-acre parcel for the school bus yard and warehouse in the industrial park, and a 5.5-acre site closer to the residential portion for the high school.

Danger to Children

The district claims it cannot build the high school on the 14.5-acre parcel for several reasons, including dangers to children posed by the location in the industrial park.

The lawsuit will not delay the project because the district has not requested the court to halt construction, said Mark G. Sellers, Thousand Oaks’ city attorney. Shapell Industries has been allotted permits to begin construction on 195 units so far, Councilman Frank Schillo said.

District and city officials were scheduled to meet today to discuss the issue, but negotiations have been canceled because of the lawsuit, Schillo said. He said he was “totally shocked” at the district’s action and believes that the 14.5-acre parcel is usable for the high school and other facilities.

Sarah Hart, assistant superintendent of business services for the 26-school district, said a consultant from the state Department of Education inspected the 14.5-acre site last month and recommended against putting a school there because of potential hazards from industry.

The district had been counting on relocating the high school to MGM Ranch because the building now being used on Newbury Road is about 50 years old, she said. The district would rather negotiate for more land with the city but filed the lawsuit as “a legal safeguard” in case talks proved fruitless, she said.