Pomona Plans to Raze Homes for School : Some Are Unhappy With Board’s Eminent Domain Action

Pomona school officials, faced with overcrowded conditions in the area’s elementary schools, are planning to raze nine houses in southwest Pomona to make way for a new campus, angering some homeowners who claim that they cannot afford to move out of the neighborhood.

The Board of Education has voted unanimously to acquire, through eminent domain, 10 acres of residential land--including one vacant four-acre lot--on the southwest corner of White and Grand avenues and to offer the owners market value for the property. A private firm has appraised the land at about $3 million.

The site will be used for a 20-classroom elementary school for about 600 students. The school, which will cost from $5 million to $6 million to build, is expected to ease the crunch at Lexington, Madison and Mendoza elementary schools in south Pomona. Those schools are either at or over capacity, said William Pitts, acting superintendent of the Pomona Unified School District.

“We’re growing at a rate of 900 students per year,” Pitts said. Although the pupil-to-teacher ratio is the same as at other school districts, he added, “we have less total space for playgrounds and cafeterias. We have to have four or five lunch periods a day.”

The district also plans to build an elementary school in Phillips Ranch, one in Diamond Bar and another on a site yet to be determined.

The plan to build a school at White and Grand avenues was assailed by two residents during a public hearing before last week’s board vote. They said it would be hard to find a comparable home elsewhere.

Carol Linares, who has lived at 966 W. Grand Ave. for 13 years with her husband and two sons, said the $260,000 the district is offering her family would not compensate for the emotional loss of leaving.

“This land has been in the family for ages. My husband’s grandparents built the house,” Linares said, standing behind her garage in the middle of a spacious back yard. “And we planned to build homes here for our sons.

“This is our property. I don’t think anybody should have the right to take that away from you. The United States is supposed to be the land of the free. So how can they do this?”

Greta Fallon, 90, said she has lived at 1141 S. White Ave. since 1950 and is “too old to be moving somewhere else. I lost my husband here and I want to die in the same place he died.”

Larry Goshorn, director of facility planning for the district, said officials are doing all they can to help the families relocate, including hiring consultants in Los Angeles County’s real estate division for relocation assistance.

The other seven homeowners have agreed to consider the school district’s offers, although none have yet accepted, Goshorn said. He said that the district will file condemnation claims against any owner refusing to negotiate.

Neither Linares nor Fallon would say if they are considering legal action, but the owner of the vacant four-acre lot, Chu-Ming Chen, plans to challenge the $955,000 estimated value of his property, his attorney said.

“That’s totally inadequate,” said Henry Barbosa of Barbosa & Vera in Los Angeles. “It’s worth more than twice that.”

Pomona Unified School District includes 22 elementary schools, six junior high schools, three high schools and one continuation school.