School District to Seek OK on Revised Plan to Lease Land

Financially hurting school officials are slated to seek approval from the City Council on Monday night for their embattled plan to put luxury apartments on the campus of the former Wintersburg Continuation High School.

Huntington Beach Union High School District trustees seek to lease nearly 12 acres of school land to a development company for construction of about 230 apartments. The district stands to receive about $75,000 a year in a 65-year lease.

Officials of the financially strapped school district say new income is desperately needed to head off further cuts.

The Planning Commission rejected the school district’s proposal last month on grounds that the housing development would nibble away at open space by removing a soccer field, increase traffic problems at the already busy intersection of Golden West Street and Warner Avenue and put a strain on the sewer system.

The project would be built on part of a 60-acre school parcel that also includes Ocean View High School and a number of athletic fields.

In moves to ease concerns, the district scaled down the project from 16 acres to 11.8 acres and dropped plans for a commercial center. Also, a soccer field would be relocated to another part of the property. Further, the district agreed to include affordable housing units.

The school district’s business partner in the project, Andover Chandler Cos. of Burbank, would also build a 20,000-square-foot building that would serve as the school district’s headquarters at the location.

The district pays $90,000 a year in rent for its headquarters on land owned by the Fountain Valley School District on Yorktown Avenue.

The district, beset for years by plummeting enrollment and tightening revenue from the state, cut $3.1 million last month, laying off librarians and nurses, increasing class sizes and closing the Huntington Beach High School swimming pool.

Students who previously attended Wintersburg were moved to the new Valley Vista School on the grounds at Fountain Valley High School when school resumed after Easter vacation.