South Bay : Panel Urges Turning Navy Site Into School
A 20-member community advisory panel has recommended turning a former Navy housing complex in San Pedro into a Catholic high school.
“We are very thrilled and excited,” said Father Norbert Wood, principal of Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro. The 27-acre surplus Navy site on Taper Avenue would allow the school, now at 810 8th St., to increase enrollment from 300 students to 500.
Another beneficiary of the committee’s recommendations was the Port of Los Angeles, which has been scheduled to take over two smaller parcels on Terminal Island at no cost.
As recently as last year, federal law had given homeless groups first priority on the property, but community outcry prompted Congress to scrap that provision.
Still, the panel did not snub San Pedro’s foremost agency for the homeless. The committee recommended that the Harbor Interfaith Shelter, which also applied for the Taper Avenue site, should receive donations of land or money from the port and the high school to help expand its services.
The panel’s recommendations must survive a community hearing Sept. 6 before being shipped off to the City Council for final approval.
More to Read
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
