District May Seize Site for New Campus

A Los Angeles Unified school board member said Wednesday that the district may use eminent domain to seize a recently sold property that is considered the best middle school site in the severely overcrowded East Valley.

Bert Boeckmann, who runs Galpin Ford, bought the former Van Nuys Drive-In on June 1 in a deal arranged by real estate broker and mayoral candidate Steve Soboroff. Boeckmann plans to use the land for auto storage for his North Hills Ford dealership at Roscoe and Sepulveda boulevards.

Board member Caprice Young said the school district has been conducting environmental tests on the site on Roscoe Boulevard about 1 1/2 blocks east of the dealership. To start the process over on another site, if one were available, would cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, she said. Although there is no alternative middle school site, other places can be found for Boeckmann to park his cars, Young said.

“The good thing about Bert Boeckmann is he really cares about kids and education,” Young said. “We are hoping he will be reasonable. And if not, we have the power of eminent domain.”

Robert Buxbaum, interim general manager of facilities, said he believes seizing the property by eminent domain may be the only way for the district to get it.

“We absolutely need this site,” Buxbaum said. “It was located as a result of a very extensive search. There are something like 2,000 kids in the neighborhood next to it who will need a new middle school. The only two options for a site like this are having a willing seller or eminent domain.”

The seller, Circuit City Inc., was represented in the real estate deal by Soboroff, who was chairman of the Proposition BB oversight committee on school construction at the time. Soboroff said he gave the district the first shot at the property, but district officials wavered and only became seriously interested after Boeckmann bought the land, he said.

“The story is, the district is in chaos, and they don’t know what they’re doing with real estate,” said Soboroff, who made about $200,000 in the sale. “I offered to waive my fee and hand [the property] to the district on a silver platter.”

If the district would have made an offer on the property before Boeckmann, it could have tied up the land so no one else could buy it, Soboroff said.

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Buxbaum said the district could not have bought the parcel until all environmental studies had been completed.

Boeckmann said the site is crucial for his business.

“If they take [the site], is there any property I can get?” said Boeckmann, whose dealership employs 800. “I haven’t been able to find it. They can just find a smaller property.”

Supt. Roy Romer said the issue comes down to whether it is more important for the car dealer to expand or for the neighborhood’s children to have a new school.

“We have very professional studies that show this is the ideal site,” Romer said. “Where are the values? There is no other site in the area where those kids can walk to school, pure and simple.”

A May court order gave the district the right to conduct environmental studies required before purchase or seizure of a site. Since the sale, Boeckmann has barred the district from continuing the studies.