No Porter Ranch Schools

Can you imagine a city of 3,400 homes, 6 million square feet of office space, and 50,000 people without any schools? This is what will happen if the present version of the Porter Ranch Specific Plan is approved by the City Council. Though between 900 students (developer’s figure) and 2,500 students (L.A. City Planning Guidelines) are expected, no land for schools is guaranteed.

A “Cinderella clause” was added that would reserve a seven-acre school site for purchase at “market prices” until the year 2000. This is enough for only one school of a maximum of 480 students, according to state guidelines. Those same state guidelines, in effect, will not allow the school district to buy the land until the homes are built, occupied and the children are there.

Since the project is planned to take 20 to 30 years to complete, it is unlikely that site will be saved for a school.

When I first got involved in March, 1989, several members of PRIDE thought that this was a smoke-screen problem that would be resolved in the first set of serious negotiations. Now, 1 1/2 years later PRIDE, the LAUSD and the 31st District PTSA as well as other City Council members are still asking for this minimal amount of basic public services.

The lack of planning for schools in the Porter Ranch Specific Plan is indicative of its serious flaws in other, more complex areas such as traffic flow, jobs/housing ratios, air pollution, water, solid wastes, sewage and so on.

If the entire City Council does not wake up and stop this flawed plan, a major precedent will be set. The next time a major developer comes into your community he can correctly claim he can do just as he wishes because “Porter Ranch didn’t have to do it.”

DIANA DIXON-DAVIS

Chatsworth