Redevelopment Touted as Key to Schools’ Dilemma : Finances: Exploding population in Santa Ana creates crowding pressures that some believe can be solved by a citywide scheme.

At Remington Elementary School, there are twice as many students in portable classrooms as there are in the school’s main building.

Because of the exploding population in the Santa Ana Unified School District, Remington Elementary, built for 240 students, must now accommodate 750 pupils, with little space left over for a playground.

In fact, no school in the district meets state standards for space.

In the Garden Grove Unified School District, the portion that is located in Santa Ana faces similar overcrowding. Hazard Elementary School, for example, was designed for 400 students, but its enrollment is expected to reach 700 next fall.

But in a scheme that to some skeptics may sound too good to be true, the city of Santa Ana has proposed creating a citywide redevelopment project that would generate more than $1.5 billion over the next 30 years for new schools, athletic fields, computer labs, community centers and parks that could be used by both the schools and the city.

“I am optimistic,” said Rudy Castruita, superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District. “I think it’s a good step in the right direction.”

City officials have stopped short of calling the plan a panacea for its social and economic ills. But clearly, they hope that the injection of new capital into the schools and neighborhoods will bring their “Education First” campaign to life and make Santa Ana a livable community.

A city slide show explaining the plan juxtaposes pictures of crowded Santa Ana schools with a photograph of a swimming center with Olympics-size pool at Irvine High School. Other slides show lots that have been cleared for Continuation High School and King Elementary School and remain vacant because state funding has not been provided.

“We think this is our opportunity to do something right for the community,” Community Development Executive Director Cindy Nelson explained during a recent presentation.

Under the city proposal, the two-thirds of Santa Ana not currently covered by six ongoing redevelopment projects would be included in a new redevelopment area, with capital improvements to be financed through the sale of bonds.

As property changes hands and the total assessed valuation increases, the additional revenue would go to the Redevelopment Agency to repay bond debt.

While the emphasis is on educational facilities, the city--getting 24% of every tax dollar created by the project--would also spend money on other neighborhood improvements.

The Garden Grove and Santa Ana school districts and Rancho Santiago Community College District recently submitted preliminary “wish lists” totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Santa Ana district, for example, wants $150 million for new schools and reconstruction projects. The Garden Grove district, with 20% of its student population from Santa Ana, has proposed a $6.9-million wish list that includes a new elementary school, computer labs and basic maintenance projects.

The college district has asked for a new football field, stadium lighting and locker rooms, a business and computer technology center and a parking garage at its Santa Ana campus.

At a recent meeting at City Hall, Nelson cited the shrinking state funding for education and said the city plan would ensure that schools, instead of waiting in line for construction money that might never come, would benefit from redevelopment dollars directed to local projects.

“Then why isn’t everyone doing it?” Community Redevelopment Commissioner Alexander Nalle asked Nelson.

Nelson replied, “The political will has to be there.”

And that may be the city’s greatest challenge, but one that community leaders have already begun addressing.

Having been criticized during previous redevelopment projects for displacing residents through eminent domain, city officials are promising that the Redevelopment Agency will not acquire land through condemnation proceedings in this project.

And in an effort to muster political support and goodwill, city and school officials will meet again Thursday to lay out a strategy for involving neighborhood organizations and citizens.

Having given tentative approval to begin the two-year planning process, city and school officials want communitywide support for the final list of projects to be funded during the 30-year program.

“We want to work with neighborhoods,” Nelson said. “We want them to be a part of this working group and come to these meetings and tell us what their priorities are. It’s not just the city officials creating something for them to live with.”

Officials also may be facing a separate public relations problem as citizens learn that in order to create a redevelopment zone, the area must be legally designated as blighted.

“There are going to be a lot of people worried about that blight designation,” Planning Commissioner Lisa Mills said during a recent meeting. “I can see all of my neighbors having heart failure because of something called ‘blight.’ ”

But inadequate public facilities in an otherwise stable neighborhood could meet that legal requirement, Nelson said.