District Considers Store Site for New School

With environmental problems plaguing its preferred site, the Los Angeles Unified School District instead is considering acquiring a Robinsons-May department store in North Hollywood as the location for a new high school to relieve overcrowding in the east San Fernando Valley.

If necessary, school officials said Wednesday they would consider using eminent domain for the 24.7-acre department store and parking lot, which they called ideal for a high school because it would not require taking any homes, raises no immediate environmental concerns and--unlike other sites sought by the district--has some community support.

Bob Niccum, the school district’s director of real estate and asset management, said that, if acquired, the building probably would be torn down for seismic safety reasons to make way for a new school.

“Clearly, this is not a done deal,” said Caprice Young, the Los Angeles school board member who proposed the site after meeting with North Hollywood residents in her district. “But the possibility is there.”

During a Los Angeles Board of Education committee meeting next week, district officials will recommend that a feasibility study be conducted about the department store, which opened in 1955 and has about 800 retail and administrative employees.

Originally, the district considered building a high school on a gravel pit in Sun Valley but plans were stopped when tests revealed environmental risks.

Districtwide, officials hope to build 100 schools in some of the city’s densest neighborhoods by 2008.