Schools Benefit from Funding Deal

In a deal that could be worth more than $140 million for local schools, the William S. Hart Union High School District has reached an agreement with the Newhall Land & Farming Co. to secure funding to educate thousands of new students that would be brought to the area by the developer’s future projects, including the massive Newhall Ranch proposal.

After more than two years of sometimes rancorous negotiations, Newhall Land has agreed to pay more than twice the minimum state requirement to mitigate the impacts of new students on the district, school officials said.

The district’s board of trustees voted 5 to 0 to approve the agreement at a special meeting Monday night.

According to the agreement--which covers up to 35,000 new units of housing, including more than 24,000 in Newhall Ranch--Newhall Land will pay a flat fee of $5,600 for each single-family unit constructed and $2,100 for multifamily units, including condominiums and apartments.

The figures are based on 1997 property values and are subject to yearly adjustments tied to the housing market, construction costs and the number of new students who enroll in the district. The fees would be paid at the time construction permits are issued for individual units.

Some of the funds will be used to build two new junior high schools and at least one new high school, school officials said.

“Our figures show that we are going to double in size,” said Michael von Buelow, associate superintendent of the 13,500-student Hart district. “It’s been a long time coming but we are satisfied that it’s a good agreement, not only for the district and Newhall Land but for the students who are going to be attending these schools.”

As part of the agreement, the school district pledged to continue to seek money from the state for the schools and to partially reimburse Newhall Land with any state funds that it receives, said Marlee Lauffer, spokeswoman for the development company.

“We’ve assumed more of the risk in the interest of moving forward,” Lauffer said.

In California, school improvements are generally funded through a combination of state funds and developer fees.

School officials and local activists had argued that the minimal state requirement that developers pay $1.93 per square foot of new construction was woefully inadequate to cover the costs associated with new students.

“With that amount, you can’t build a school that has anywhere near the necessities,” Von Buelow said.

Lauffer said Newhall Land had consistently offered more than the state minimum and ultimately agreed to pay the amount sought by the district because the company was eager to resolve the issue. The company is trying to win county approval for the Newhall Ranch proposal and other projects.

Newhall Ranch, to be built over a 30-year period in an area west of the Golden State Freeway between Valencia and the Ventura County line, would be the largest housing development in the history of Los Angeles County. The project was approved by the Regional Planning Commission in December but still must be approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors before construction can begin. The board is scheduled to review the project later this month.

“This agreement covers all of our remaining homes to be built in Newhall Ranch and Valencia,” Lauffer said. “It’s a multimillion-dollar commitment. We believe that schools are very critical to the Santa Clarita Valley and it’s important to put this issue behind us.”

Lynne Plambeck, a member of the Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment, which has differed with Newhall Land over a number of development issues, also praised the pact.

“This is basically a good agreement. It provided full mitigation,” Plambeck said. “That doesn’t mean that we support the [Newhall Ranch] project. It’s still environmentally damaging. It does mean that we applaud Newhall Land for doing what it should do about schools.”