Plan Expands for a School on Retail Site

Despite outcry from business leaders, Los Angeles school officials said Thursday they plan to examine a broader retail area for a high school to include the district’s original preferred site--a Robinsons-May department store--plus nearby Valley Plaza.

School officials say they want to study the environmental, community and economic impact of acquiring a portion of the roughly 55-acre retail district marketed by developers as “Twin Plaza.”

“I want to make it clear that we’re not considering the entire Twin Plaza area,” said school board member Caprice Young, who will recommend that the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday approve a feasibility study of the site. “We are expanding our options so that we may move quickly.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District risks losing funding from Proposition 1A, the largest school bond measure in California history, to build 48 schools, if officials fail to identify sites, purchase land and devise architectural plans before the June 30 deadline. A site must pass a feasibility study, which can take nine months or longer, before the district can acquire it.

Resistance from businesses and developers began shortly after the district announced earlier this month that it was considering acquiring an operating Robinsons-May department store near Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Oxnard Street. The 24.7-acre site also houses the corporate headquarters for the 55-store Robinsons-May division.

“We absolutely want to stay where we are,” said Rhonda West, a corporate spokeswoman for the May Department Stores Co., the St. Louis-based parent company. West said the combined retail and administrative operation employs about 1,800 people.

Open since 1955, company officials rate the department store as “very successful” and said any move would affect profitability.

Earlier this month, Joseph R. LeDuc, a company senior vice president, sent the school board a strongly worded letter objecting to its plans and saying school officials had “grossly underestimated” the cost of acquiring the property and relocating the operation.

“Considering the flawed acquisition and relocation cost estimate, as well as the impossible time schedule, we believe that such a scheme is clearly infeasible and consequently that the preparation of a feasibility study--and the attendant waste of time and resources--cannot be justified,” LeDuc wrote.

Opposition intensified on Thursday, when some retailers and developers of the corridor--which includes two major department stores and dozens of smaller businesses--heard about the district’s plan from a reporter. “This is the first I’m hearing of it,” said developer Ira Smedra, who is in escrow to purchase the vacant JCPenney site and several smaller nearby properties.

Smedra, who spent months negotiating to acquire the properties, said he’s moving forward with plans to bring new retail life into a corner of the shopping strip that has been largely vacant since the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

“We are in final negotiations with several tenants,” he said, adding that his initial plans call for more than 100,000 square feet of new retail space.

Developer Arthur Sweet said publicity about the school district’s interest could delay or deter development of the retail district.

“We want to help locate a site for a new high school,” added Sweet. “We want [LAUSD] to consider alternative sites.”

The district dropped its first choice, a gravel pit in Sun Valley, after a feasibility study discovered severe environmental problems.

Young said officials would consider alternative sites and invited the public to attend a 7 p.m. community meeting Thursday at Walter Reed Middle School, 4525 Irvine Ave.