HUNTINGTON BEACH : Schools’ Housing Plan Turned Down

The Huntington Beach Union High School District’s plan to convert a closed school site into a housing development hit another snag this week when the Planning Commission rejected its latest proposal.

Commission members voted unanimously, with two abstentions, to turn down the district’s request to build up to 296 apartments and condominiums on the Wintersburg School site.

The proposal, a scaled-back version of a project the commission rejected last month, now moves to the City Council.

The commission agreed with city staff members and nearby residents that the housing development would cost vital open space, exacerbate traffic problems in the area and overtax the city’s drainage system.

If the council does not approve the request for the 12-acre site on Golden West Street near Warner Avenue, the school district will lose what officials there said would be a vital source of income. The district has been forced to slash nearly $21 million from its annual budget in the past seven years, cutting key programs, increasing class sizes and laying off scores of employees.

The residential proposal could bring the district an initial $750,000 a year in lease payments. That figure would escalate over the 65-year term of the proposed agreement with the housing developer.

If the district is unable to develop the Wintersburg site, however, officials say the district may have to further slash school programs and jobs, or perhaps close one of its six high schools.

The school district is moving the Wintersburg facility, a continuation and adult school, to a site next to Fountain Valley High School. Based on a community panel’s recommendation, district trustees decided to make that move and develop Wintersburg for profit. The only alternative proposed was to close a high school.

“The tragedy is this has been in the planning for years, with moves we’ve already made that have already disrupted this district,” school board President Bonnie Castrey said. “This has not been an overnight plan.”

The new development proposal deleted an aspect from the original plan that called for a shopping center and new district offices on the site.

Only the housing proposal remains, which would be on the Wintersburg buildings site and about three acres of the adjacent sports fields that are shared with Ocean View High School. One football field would be lost if the project is built.

Many residents said at the Planning Commission meeting that they sympathize with the school district’s need for income but object to the potential loss of park space and expected traffic and drainage problems.

“Open land is such a valuable resource,” resident Patty Rinders said. “We should know here in Southern California that resources surrendered are rarely recovered.”

Commissioner Susan Newman adamantly opposed the notion of trading open space to help the school district cope with its fiscal bind.

“To rob people of that for the sake of a buck is unconscionable,” she said. “The district should look into how to benefit the education of children by a range of alternatives, and not by a plan that shortchanges all of us.”

The council is expected to vote on the proposal in May.