Builder Offers $29-Million Deal to Schools : Santa Clarita Valley: In return for the gift of land and money, the district has agreed to drop its opposition to the developer’s plan to construct at least 10,000 units.

A major developer has agreed to donate land and cash to a Santa Clarita Valley high school district worth as much as $29.3 million--the largest such contribution ever made to the school system.

In return, the William S. Hart Union High School District has agreed not to oppose plans by the developer, Dale Poe Development Corp., to build at least 10,000 units in the company’s giant Stevenson Ranch residential project west of the Golden State Freeway and south of Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Hart officials had previously urged the Los Angeles County Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to reject the project because it could eventually add 2,500 students to the rapidly growing school district.

The donations are worth almost twice as much as the standard developer fees levied on residential construction to build schools, Hart Supt. Clyde Smyth said Friday.

Under state law, developers must pay local school districts $1.56 for each square foot of residential construction. Those fees would have netted the Hart district only $15 million, Smyth said.

Smyth and school officials statewide have said for years that developer fees do not provide enough funds to build new schools. Hart officials have repeatedly said they would drop their opposition to Stevenson Ranch only if the company scaled down its plans or went beyond the payments required by law.

The Hart trustees approved the agreement Thursday night. Under it, the district will not endorse Stevenson Ranch but will withdraw its opposition and send a letter to the Board of Supervisors listing the benefits of the pact to the Santa Clarita Valley.

“I think it’s fair,” Smyth said. Asked if the pact would set a precedent for other school districts to follow, he replied, “I would sure be happy if it did.”

Jeff Stevenson, a Dale Poe vice president, said the company was pleased with the package and noted that it follows a similar deal--worth $22 million--that the company struck with the Newhall School District, an elementary school system.

The donations to Hart are tied to the number of units eventually built in Stevenson Ranch. Dale Poe is obligated to donate 42 acres, still to be selected, for a new high school to serve residents of the more than 5,000 units the company has already received county permission to build, Smyth said. The land is worth $16.8 million, and the company will donate $1.8 million in cash.

The company would donate 24.5 acres, worth $9.7 million, for a junior high school if the company wins approval of another 2,500 units, Smyth said. If Stevenson Ranch eventually reaches 10,000 units, the company would donate another $1 million in cash, he said.

The agreement comes at an important time for Dale Poe. Last month the Los Angeles Regional Planning Commission refused to revise the area’s General Plan to allow Stevenson Ranch to expand to at least 10,000 units. Dale Poe intends to press for the expansion when the plan reaches the Board of Supervisors, which will make the final decision.

After the commission’s action, Stevenson said the company would try to persuade the supervisors to allow the expansion by citing the project’s amenities and its value to the Santa Clarita Valley.

The Santa Clarita Valley’s five school districts are scrambling to accommodate skyrocketing enrollments. District superintendents predict that they will need to build 33 schools by 2010--at a cost of $400 million.

Hart officials hope to hear sometime this summer whether the district has qualified for state funding to build a new high school--the district’s fourth--in Valencia. It will cost about $40 million to purchase the land and build the school, Smyth said.

He said the district, now with 9,400 students, will have 11,569 in two years, about 3,300 over the enrollment its schools are designed to hold.

A fifth high school is tentatively planned for the eastern side of the Santa Clarita Valley. The Stevenson Ranch site would be the district’s sixth high school campus.