MOORPARK : Talks on Old School Site Will Resume
Moorpark city officials have agreed to resume negotiations over the purchase of land from the Moorpark Unified School District.
Members of a committee from the city and the school district have agreed to resolve the 8-month-old dispute, Moorpark City Councilman Clint Harper said Wednesday.
City Manager Steve Kueny said a meeting could be scheduled within two weeks.
The agreement ends a stalemate resulting from a bitter dispute about the old high school where the land is located, Harper said. He said he was optimistic about a settlement.
A Superior Court judge in November upheld a ruling that the city and the school district resume negotiations over the sale of nearly eight acres of athletic fields at the former Memorial High School.
The city wants to turn the land into a park. It claims it is permitted under state law to buy the property at below market value because it is for recreational use. It has offered the district $319,000.
District officials claim state laws allow them to sell the land at a higher price to make up for the cost of building a new school.
School officials need between $4 million and $4.5 million from sale of the 26-acre high school site, Moorpark school board member Tom Baldwin said.
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