COSTA MESA/NEWPORT BEACH : District Agrees to Sell Vacant Bear St. School

With a budget-cutting plan in place to cover losses in the county bond pool, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board approved the sale of a vacant school site to raise money to fill part of a projected $9.5-million shortfall in the 1995-96 budget.

District officials expect the Bear Street School, 3100 Bear St., Costa Mesa, to fetch at least $4.5 million, but the sale is expected to take eight months to a year.

The district must advertise first to other public agencies, then may advertise on the open market if it does not receive a fair market value offer from the public sector within 60 days.

The Bear Street School site is the only one of the district’s eight vacant properties that has been through the long public hearing process and been declared surplus, making it eligible for sale. Although the other vacant sites are under study, none is anticipated to be advertised for sale before April.

The school board voted in principle Feb. 28 to sell the Bear Street campus as part of a package of emergency financial measures to keep the district solvent despite its $80-million investment in the county pool.

Tuesday’s vote set that process in motion by designating the school site as surplus and authorizing district officials to notify the city of Costa Mesa and other public agencies that the school site is for sale.

District officials anticipate a $9.5-million shortfall in an $86.8-million budget. In February, the board also finalized a range of budget cuts totaling $3 million, to be made gradually as the need arises. They have also approved moving another $1.8 million of next year’s budget from a fund set aside for “economic uncertainties.”