SANTA CALRITA / ANTELOPE VALLEY : Trustees Conditionally OK Disputed Site for New School

Trustees for the Antelope Valley Union High School District have agreed to accept a hilltop school site from a developer despite the expectation that the state Department of Education will not approve it.

The high school district accepted the property, donated by the developer of the 7,200-home master planned Ritter Ranch, on the condition that the state agency that funds school construction, the State Allocation Board, will overturn the education department’s rejection of the site.

Without state approval of the site, the district would not be eligible for state funds to construct a school on the land.

Betty Hanson, a consultant with the education department’s school facilities planning division, said Thursday that it is the first time that she is aware of that a district has accepted a site over concerns from her department. She is doubtful that the State Allocation Board would reverse her department’s findings.

The 50-acre site that Ritter Park Associates donated for a high school, Hanson said, has too many problems.

Hanson, who has told the district that the site would probably be rejected, said her concerns were based on safety. Access to the hilltop site would be on a steep road with multiple switchbacks and significant amounts of fill grading. The road would cross the San Andreas Fault twice, and Hanson said the fill dirt would collapse during a major earthquake.

Ritter Ranch said it would construct a second, emergency access road along the ridge top, but Hanson said that is an inadequate attempt to resolve the problem.

Hanson, who said the state visited the school site and other portions of the 10,625-acre Ritter Ranch area at least four times, believes that the district should have found a less problematic 50-acre parcel than the one off Elizabeth Lake Road at about 50th Street West within the development.

“Why would you pick a site that puts the students’ safety at risk when there are alternate sites?” she asked.

The answer comes in the package that the developer is offering the district. At a study session last month, company officials agreed to provide more than $18 million in land, improvements to the property and fees.

Ritter’s offer was contingent on the district choosing the hilltop site.