Council Minority Tries to Drag Out Wal-Mart Deal : Delay: Huntington Beach activists want to preserve shuttered school at store site via a special ballot.

While other Southern California school districts are scrambling for extra classroom space, Huntington Beach is poised to move forward with plans to demolish a shuttered elementary school to make way for Wal-Mart.

And opponents are doing everything they can to stop it.

They’ve gathered about 22,000 signatures in hopes of putting the issue on a special ballot later this year. And the City Council’s minority Monday night sought to hamstring the demolition project until voters have their say. City officials have said about 15,000 valid signatures are needed to force a special election.

The Arkansas-based chain plans to continue its efforts to demolish Crest View Elementary School to make way for a new store. The proposed 65-year lease could be worth $40 million to the Ocean View School District, which wants the money for much-needed plumbing, electrical wiring and roof repairs at its other 15 schools.

But demolishing the boarded-up school for the world’s largest retailer has left many in the nearby residential and business communities worried that a chain that boasts $137 billion in yearly sales will destroy the neighborhood and eat up smaller businesses downtown.

Others are concerned about the traffic the store would generate.

Besides, they say, enough is enough.

“Only 1.8 miles away is a Kmart,” said Marvin Josephson, head of Crest View United, a group formed in 1995 to save the elementary school. Target, he said, is three miles in the other direction.

“Money, money, money,” it’s all the city wants, Josephson said of Huntington Beach officials’ early estimates that the store would pull in $400,000 yearly in sales tax.

Instead, Josephson said those working to save the school--at Lisa Lane and Talbert Avenue--would like it to be renovated and possibly sold to a private school operator, or used for future generations of schoolchildren.

Huntington Beach City Atty. Gail Hutton cautioned Monday that if opponents prevail and the City Council reverses its earlier 4-3 vote to welcome the retailer, it would leave the city vulnerable.

“Wal-Mart could sue us,” she said.

School district Supt. James R. Tarwater said that unlike some districts experiencing a space crunch, Huntington Beach residents don’t need more schools, just better ones. He also added that the Crest View site is so dilapidated that demolition is the only option.

“It’s quite an eyesore,” he said of the disputed site. “I can’t afford to maintain it. . . . I need capital to improve my schools. It’s critical for us.”

In the 1960s and ‘70s, Huntington Beach was a golden surf-side community opening four schools a year. But in the 1980s, the population matured and growth leveled off. Enrollment bottomed out.

Today, even with enrollment slightly on the upswing, the district has schools it doesn’t need that are either boarded up or rented out.

Wal-Mart was already to have begun demolition, but opponents are hoping to delay that until after the possible vote.

City Councilman Dave Sullivan, who opposes the project, favors bringing the issue back before the board. He contends that last spring’s vote approving Wal-Mart’s use of the land was taken without accurate information regarding the city’s ability to impose conditions during demolition.

At the very least, Sullivan said, the council needs to right that action. And while that won’t undo the vote, it could saddle the developer with numerous new conditions related to trucks, dust and asbestos.

This could in turn buy time for the activists to get the issue on a ballot, supporters say.

Currently, officials with the county registrar’s office need until mid-September to verify the signatures collected.

Wal-Mart officials are not alarmed. They have grown accustomed to dealing with opposition. For example, residents in Eureka in Northern California voted in their own special election just last week to block Wal-Mart from building a waterfront outlet there.

“[Huntington Beach] is in need for more sales tax revenue,” Wal-Mart spokeswoman Cynthia Lin said. “The leasing of the site would actually benefit a number of parties,” including the school district, “and that obviously benefits children in the city.”