City Endorses Building on Surplus Property

Despite opposition from residents near the former Crest View School, the City Council voted this week to encourage commercial development on surplus school sites and other large vacant parcels.

The Ocean View School District has proposed developing the Crest View site at Talbert Avenue and Beach Boulevard with a retail project that would bring in tax revenue for the city and lease income to the school district to pay for improvements at campuses still open.

The council voted 6-1, with Councilman Peter M. Green dissenting, for a resolution encouraging property owners to pursue developments on vacant or surplus sites next to major streets, including the 14-acre Crest View campus.

Green said he opposed the resolution because it seemed to focus on the Crest View site and that he would prefer to seek public comment before supporting a project there.

But Councilman Ralph Bauer, who made the proposal, said there are a dozen sites with development potential.

“The idea is the City Council commit itself to exploit those sites to maximize the sales taxes, . . . consistent with good city planning and consistent with being good neighbors,” Bauer said.

More than 30 people addressed the council on the issue, many of them Crest View-area residents opposing development of the school site. They proposed that it remain as open space or be converted to a youth sports complex.

Among their objections were that development would increase traffic, devalue property and take away a green area now used for family recreation.

“My main concern is that there would be no place for the children to play except for in the street,” 40-year resident Pat Evans said after the meeting. “The monetary value of the property shouldn’t be placed over the future of our kids.”

Others, though, said that the city must increase its tax base to pay for services and that raising money for school repairs is essential.

Peg Edey, PTA co-president at Spring View Middle School, said a commercial project at Crest View would be a positive move “for all our children.”

“We need some infusion of money to maintain the sites we do have,” Edey said.