Land Swaps by Schools Get Mixed Reception : Santa Clarita: A proposed shopping center on a Sulphur Springs district parcel is rejected. But a plan by the Hart district is approved.

Two cash-strapped Santa Clarita Valley school districts have gotten a mixed reception at City Hall to proposals that would help them pay for badly needed new classrooms by swapping or leasing land to developers.

The City Council voted 4 to 1 to reject a Sulphur Springs School District plan to lease a former school site to a developer for a shopping center, saying the proposed mall was too large and would be too disruptive to neighbors. The district’s proposal to jointly develop the mall with Tandam Builders Inc., which the council scotched Tuesday despite the backing of about 200 supportive parents, would have brought in at least $650,000 annually for 66 years.

At the same meeting, however, the council unanimously approved a 10-year development agreement between the city, the William S. Hart Union High School District and Sierra Heights Partnership of Sherman Oaks that will save the district at least $2.5 million in sewer hookup fees and grading costs for a new school.

Under the agreement, the school district is to trade an isolated 27-acre Canyon Country parcel for property closer to houses, and the developer agreed to pay the city an extra $1 million in road improvement fees. In return, the developer will be allowed to build 414 houses on the land received from the school district at another site.

Such land swaps between school districts and developers have occurred previously in the Santa Clarita Valley, school officials said.

But the Sulphur Springs proposal was the first locally to propose leasing land for a commercial project, although such arrangements have cropped up elsewhere as districts throughout the state have grappled with a shortage of money to build classrooms.

The proposals from the two school districts were treated differently because “they presented us with two completely different issues,” Councilwoman Jan Heidt said. “The Hart land swap proposal had already been approved by the Planning Commission and won’t disturb neighbors. But the Sulphur Springs proposal would have had a massive impact on the community.”

Under the Sulphur Springs proposal, Tandam would build a shopping center that would include a grocery store, fast-food restaurant and shops on the site of a 9.2-acre former school at Soledad Canyon Road and Luther Drive.

The district has already relocated the district offices that were on the site and closed the 350-student elementary school, assigning the pupils to another school nearby.

The district would have used lease income from the shopping center to build about 25 permanent classrooms and pay the cost of maintenance and supplies cut from the budget this summer, school board President Joan MacGregor said.

The Planning Commission rejected the proposal earlier this summer because the developer refused to shrink the 113,000-square-foot shopping center by 20%. It would be expected to increase traffic on the already congested section of Soledad Canyon Road by 8%.

The council told Sulphur Springs officials Tuesday to return to the Planning Commission with a new proposal after consulting with residents who would be affected by the project.

Councilman Howard (Buck) McKeon cast the sole vote in support of the shopping center.

MacGregor said the delay and proposed revisions could destroy the developer’s chances of securing financing or make it uneconomical.

“We’re extremely demoralized and discouraged by the council’s action,” MacGregor said. “We feel they’re requiring more of us than they have of major developers.”

However, representatives of residents of 49 single-family houses and 240 apartments nearby were elated by the council’s action. Many had urged district officials to lease the site to church groups or other private schools, or to build single-family houses, but the district said those alternatives would not be profitable enough.