2 Schools to Receive Air Quality Funds

Ending a long legal dispute with the Los Angeles Unified School District, city officials agreed Tuesday to set up a trust fund for two Valley schools to relieve air pollution caused by the expansion of Warner Center.

The fund will require developers building projects near Canoga Park High School and Parkman Middle School to pay 10 cents per square foot of impacted land.

If all available land in the area were used, about $1.3 million could eventually flow to the schools. The money is earmarked for air quality improvements, such as air conditioning upgrades.

After a brief discussion, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved the settlement, the culmination of a 1993 lawsuit the school district filed over Warner Center’s environmental impacts.

The deal bodes well for future land-use decisions before the city and the school district, Councilwoman Laura Chick said.

“The city and the district need to work closely together as partners, not as adversaries pursuing each other,” Chick said.

Most Warner Center property owners within the affected area also favor the settlement, said Brad Rosenheim, executive director of the Warner Center Assn.

“There was this cloud of uncertainty as to what fee would be imposed,” Rosenheim said. “The property owners here wanted certainty. They wanted the thing to end in a reasonable manner.”