ABC District to Lease Lands; Hopes for $2 Million in Revenue : Development: More than 50 acres of school property will be used for office buildings, a shopping center and residential complexes.

The ABC Unified School District board has voted to move forward with a plan to lease more than 50 acres of district property to develop office buildings, a shopping center and residential complexes. The project would require relocating the district offices and the adult school.

The school system would receive up to $2 million a year in revenue from the projects without having to sell property or sacrifice needed space, said district officials and the five board members who supported the plan.

Board members Cecy Groom and Sally Morales Havice voted against the proposal. They argued that the board should have sought more input from community members and questioned predictions about how much money the district would realize.

If all goes as expected, developers will transform the site of the district headquarters to professional offices, use 20 acres of Whitney High School grounds for a senior citizen housing complex, and build a shopping center on the campuses of the adult school and adjacent Tracy High School. Tracy High currently serves about 300 students who have left the regular high school program. No other active grade-school or secondary-school campuses would be closed or relocated.

The district would receive income from long-term leases with the developers and from a percentage of rents paid by the developers’ tenants.

Board member Jim Weisenberger called the development plan a practically risk-free method to raise revenue without raising taxes. “We’re taking assets that are valuable and turning them into another commodity: money,” Weisenberger said. “We’re not giving up anything if we do this properly.”

The district would have to pay as much as $239,000 in consultant fees and the cost of relocating district headquarters from 16700 S. Norwalk Blvd. in Cerritos. On Tuesday, the board approved contracts with a law firm, an architect, a financial consultant, a development consultant and a planning consultant.

Board members Groom and Morales Havice said the board should have formed a community advisory committee before hiring the consultants.

“I don’t think we should move ahead and commit ourselves to so much without getting the community involved first,” Morales Havice said. “I’m not going to tell people what’s good for them. I’m going to listen to what they like.”

Groom questioned how successful development projects could be during a recession. She said that district consultants were too optimistic in saying that the developments would be 95% rented in four years. She also noted that if the district needed a new school, it would be difficult to build one on property that housed a shopping center with a long-term lease.

After a decade of decline, district enrollment has increased slightly each of the last two years, from 21,201 in 1989 to this year’s projected enrollment of 21,404. Officials expect more increases over the next several years.

The district already has installed portable classrooms at Hawaiian and Furgeson elementary schools, and officials expect at least three other campuses to approach capacity.

Assistant Supt. Patricia Koch sees the growing enrollment as a reason to move forward with plans for commercial development. The money earned could go toward building new classrooms at existing schools, she said, or it could be used for other pressing district needs.

Officials have identified more than $68 million worth of projects on which the money could be spent. These include renovated bathrooms at Whitney High, elementary school security systems and modern science laboratories at the junior high schools.

Koch noted that other school districts were pursuing similar development plans, including Santa Monica-Malibu Unified. The Santa Monica-area district leased three sites where developers built a hotel, art galleries and an office building, she said. The hotel alone generates $500,000 in revenue each year for the district.

Koch said she is confident that the ABC district properties will entice developers because they are in an attractive area with access to freeways. “Most of our properties are in a city (Cerritos) that is aggressively seeking quality development,” she said. “You know what they say about real estate: location, location, location.”

Some critics have questioned the district’s proposal to spend money for consultants in the same tight budget year when it reduced the library and nursing staffs. Koch said the consultant payments will come from the district’s building fund, which could not have been used to pay for salaries or educational services.