Possible School Site May Be Lost to Development

In another setback for new school construction in the San Fernando Valley, the city planning commission Thursday granted the owner of a proposed school site permission to demolish the former Carnation Ice Cream plant and build several commercial buildings in its place.

The 11-acre parcel at 8015 Van Nuys Blvd. in Panorama City is one of four high school sites in the Valley designated “high priority” by the Los Angeles Unified School District, and more than two dozen school board members, LAUSD officials and parent activists flocked to the Thursday morning commission meeting downtown to urge panelists to deny the permit.

“The commission doesn’t really make decisions between warehouses and schools,” said school board member Julie Korenstein, who represents the area of the Carnation site. “But I was hoping they could make a value judgment on how the land could be used.”

Only six of the nine planning commissioners voted; two recused themselves for having some interest in the property and one was absent. Voting members initially deadlocked 3 to 3 but after agreeing to reexamine the site in a year, voted 6 to 0 to approve the permit.

Although her plea failed, Korenstein vowed to secure the land for a school.

“We will get the property one way or another,” she said. “Eminent domain means we just take it. It’s just not my preference.”

The commission action demonstrates the difficulty the LAUSD is experiencing in its efforts to secure potential school sites in the heavily developed Valley. Earlier this summer, Bert Boeckmann, owner of Galpin Ford in North Hills, bought the former Van Nuys Drive-In site in a deal arranged by real estate broker and mayoral candidate Steven Soboroff. Boeckmann plans to use the land for auto storage for his Ford dealership at Roscoe and Sepulveda boulevards. The Van Nuys Drive-In is one of two proposed middle school sites in the Valley.

Rod Hamilton, who oversees real estate for the LAUSD in the Valley, said the district is negotiating with the owner of the Carnation property to acquire the land and has made offers to the other four property owners on the block. That would bring the total acreage to 18, the size needed for a comprehensive high school.

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Despite Thursday’s setback, Hamilton remained optimistic.

“We are very much interested in the property,” he said. “We are committed to building a school on that site.”

Dan Selleck, who has owned the property for more than a year, said that while he appreciates the need for more schools, he cannot afford to delay construction any longer.

“We intend to go forward and develop the site,” Selleck said. “We have been contacted by LAUSD, and we have granted them access to the property to do their investigation and negotiated with them in good faith. But by the time they make a decision, we could be in a serious situation financially.”

Typically, it takes at least 18 months for the LAUSD to conduct required environmental tests before it can buy property. If the landowner does not cooperate and the district is forced to use eminent domain, the schedule can stretch out another year.

An initial round of environmental tests to determine whether the site contains any toxic substances will be completed by spring 2001, Hamilton said. A second round to determine the impact of a school on the surrounding neighborhood should be completed by next summer, he said.

Korenstein said the situation in the Valley is urgent. The four other high schools in the immediate area serve more than 16,000 students. The Carnation site is perfectly located in the middle of a high-need area--a need that will grow in five years when the high school population is expected to expand by another 5,500 students, she said.

“We must have a high school,” Korenstein said. “We must have one there. Schools are capping out. There are no seats left. Students are traveling an hour or an hour and a half across the Valley to go to school.”