Negotiations to Begin on Porter Ranch School Sites

Developers of the proposed $2-billion Porter Ranch project agreed Thursday to meet with representatives of the Los Angeles school district and City Councilman Hal Bernson to negotiate the sale of land to the district for a new elementary school site.

Project representatives said Thursday that they will consider increasing the amount of land to be set aside for a school to serve new residents of the Chatsworth project. The firm has agreed to set aside five acres, which the district could buy if a new elementary school is needed.

“We have been willing to set aside whatever land it takes,” said Paul Clarke, Porter Ranch spokesman. But he added that it is too early to set aside specific properties for the district.

At a school board subcommittee hearing Thursday, board member Julie Korenstein, who represents the area, asked representatives of the Porter Ranch Development Co. to consider donating or selling as much as 10 acres for a school site if the Los Angeles City Council approves the project.

Avoid Crowding

Korenstein said she would like a larger-than-average site for the school to avoid crowding. Most elementary school sites in the San Fernando Valley are about six acres, district officials said.

Clarke said after the hearing that the two sides probably will seek a compromise during the meeting with Bernson and school district representatives.

Korenstein, who has opposed the Porter Ranch project, tabled a motion asking the developer to designate 10 acres for a school site.

“We’ll wait and see,” Korenstein said. “We’ve directed our staff to come back with a compromise.”

Korenstein and other board members last week criticized Nathan Shapell, owner of the Porter Ranch development firm, for pressuring the district in the 1970s to sell its surplus school properties, including a parcel next to Porter Ranch. As chairman of the state’s Little Hoover Commission, Shapell conducted extensive hearings statewide on surplus school properties and urged districts, including Los Angeles, to sell those sites to raise money.

Shapell’s firm later bought a 37-acre parcel, originally intended as a high school site, next to the Porter Ranch development. So far, Shapell has built and sold 124 homes on the property, which he bought in 1978 for $1.5 million.

Now the district is faced with buying back land in the area from Shapell at much higher prices.

Korenstein said the district will consider purchasing all or part of the land ultimately set aside by the Porter Ranch firm. Clarke said the company is opposed to giving any land to the district because the firm is legally required to donate as much as $15 million in fees to build schools.

District officials said those fees cannot be used exclusively for building an elementary school in the Porter Ranch area but must be shared among other school projects already under way.

Plans for the Porter Ranch development include 2,195 single-family homes, as well as 6 million square feet of commercial space. The project faces a key city hearing next month.