YORBA LINDA : Possible School-Site Swap to Be Discussed

City officials will soon discuss swapping at least 350 acres of steep hillside in Brush Canyon for flatter property in Chino Hills State Park on which to build a high school.

City Council members said such a deal could give Yorba Linda about 30 acres of land to be set aside for a new school, a longtime dream of many residents who send their children to high schools in Anaheim or Fullerton.

The Brush Canyon land, which borders Chino Hills State Park on the extreme northeast end of Yorba Linda, is considered unsuitable for development because it has such a steep grade and rugged terrain, said Steve Rudometkin, Yorba Linda’s director of parks and recreation.

The land is owned by AW Associates, the developer of a nearby housing project. The firm has agreed to dedicate the property to Yorba Linda. The city would, in turn, give the land to the state.

“Most of it is pretty hilly and pretty rustic,” Rudometkin said. “It’s almost sheer hillside. . . . From my lay person’s standpoint, I don’t think there’s much they can do with it.”

AW Associates also plans to dedicate another 500 acres near the Brush Canyon site to the city, Rudometkin said, but it is not yet known whether that would be part of a land swap.

Building a new high school “is probably the all-pervading issue in town for all families in Yorba Linda,” said Councilman John M. Gullixson, who proposed the idea and stressed schools in his campaign for council last year. “I think it can happen. The council is real positive about it happening.”

Gullixson said that it is important for Yorba Linda to have its own high school because most Yorba Linda teen-agers have to attend either Esperanza High School in Anaheim or Troy High in Fullerton.

“That’s going to turn our city into a second-class neighborhood,” he said.

As yet, the Placentia Unified School District has not been directly involved in discussions of a land swap, although some trustees say they have long known that residents want a high school in Yorba Linda.

“I would have to have some further projections (of enrollment),” Trustee Karin Freeman said. “It’s a costly venture. You really have to think carefully . . . but I’m willing to look at it because there has been interest in it through the years.”

Placentia Unified School District Supt. James Fleming said that while he would agree to study the possibility of a new high school, a master plan for schools completed three years ago indicated that the district didn’t need one.

He added that while Yorba Linda has grown dramatically in the past few years, the enrollment at Esperanza High School has remained at about 2,300. He also pointed out that the school is just across the street from the Yorba Linda border, and more than half of its students come from Yorba Linda.

“It is, for all practical purposes, a Yorba Linda school.”

State parks officials could not be reached for comment because of the holiday Tuesday. But the Brush Canyon property is part of its proposed expansion area in the Chino Hills State Park general plan.

Gullixson said that during a recent tour of Brush Canyon with Mayor Mark Schwing, park rangers told them that land swaps are common. The leader of a local conservationist group agreed.

“Usually (a land swap) is done for the benefit for all involved,” said David Miller, president of the Chino Hills Land Conservancy. “These kind of transactions are often beneficial.”

City officials say that the area would be suitable for state park preservation because it is largely untouched except for a few water tanks and power line transmission towers. The area also is a known nesting site for the golden eagle, Rudometkin said, and could serve as a natural buffer zone between the park and nearby neighborhoods.