BUENA PARK : School Districts Seek Input in Development

A four-year overhaul of the city’s general plan won bravos from the City Council Monday and protests from two school districts.

Both Centralia School District and the Anaheim Union High School District have threatened legal action if they are not given more say over a 224-home development proposed for the site occupied by the closed-down Lincoln Drive-In Theater.

The revised general plan changed the drive-in zoning from commercial to residential.

Law provides for the schools to receive $1.72 for each square foot of homes built and “pass-through” fees from new property taxes generated by the project. Senior Planner Leslie Kyle estimated that the homes in the project would be about 2,000 square feet each.

The schools anticipate having 80 new students from the project.

Attorneys for the district said they want to be included in negotiations when the city talks with the developers, but Councilwoman Rhonda J. McCune said the school districts are just being greedy.

“They get money on a per-square-foot basis, then they get money on each student, then they get pass-through money,” McCune said. “That’s $822,000 the schools get right off. This is why the developers are in Las Vegas and not here in Southern California.”

John E. Brown, an attorney for Anaheim Union, said after the meeting that the schools need to have greater stability because a school bond measure was defeated in the June election. The real issue is having language in the general plan that will guarantee schools some input to the process, he said.

“I would invite any member of the Buena Park City Council who feels this is an issue of greed to tour the schools in the Anaheim Union High School District,” he said.

The council is expected to give final approval to the general plan at its 5 p.m. meeting Monday in Civic Center Plaza, 6650 Beach Blvd.