Civil Rights Suit Demands Revisiting of Belmont Issue

A civil rights group filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District on Wednesday, demanding that it reconsider its decision to abandon the polluted Belmont Learning Complex.

The Board of Education voted in January to kill the Belmont project because of concern about methane and hydrogen sulfide at the site.

The lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund argues that the board’s action violated a state law requiring that an environmental impact report on the potential impacts of abandoning the project be completed before walking away from it.

The lawsuit alleges that killing a project that was intended to provide badly needed school facilities for the Belmont community has increased air pollution emissions by increasing busing of students.

“Not building this school also has meant having to build on four to five other sites . . . all with their own environmental impacts,” said Hector Villagra, an attorney for the group.

“We waited almost six months for them to rethink their position and come up with a plan to find other sites for providing the necessary schools,” he said. “Where are they in terms of alternatives? Nowhere. We’re tired of waiting.”

L.A. Unified officials had no immediate comment.

Two weeks ago, the board requested that Supt. Roy Romer draft a plan to complete an environmental study of the project to address a variety of options for future use of the site. Those options could include a school or some other commercial or public use, district officials said.

In a brief statement Wednesday, Romer said, “The superintendent and the district staff are in the process of preparing that plan to be taken back to the board on Aug. 1.”