School Officials Seek Belmont Site Proposals

Los Angeles school officials sought proposals Tuesday from the private sector to either finish the abandoned Belmont Learning Complex or buy the 35-acre parcel near downtown on which it is located.

Developers have 90 days to respond to the request for proposals.

The school district is pursuing three options for resolving the fate of the unfinished high school, which sits atop a former oil field that contains explosive methane gas and toxic hydrogen sulfide.

Under one option, firms would submit bids to clean up and monitor the environmental hazards on the property and finish the school for 4,000 students. They also would have to protect the district against potential lawsuits.

A second option calls for buyers to make offers to purchase or lease the land, clean it up and finish the nearly completed school. The site could include commercial or residential development and a school for 4,000 students or a smaller campus of 2,500. Like option one, the buyer would have to protect the district against liability.

A third option calls for selling the 35-acre parcel and ending the district’s involvement with the property.

Supt. Roy Romer has said that he would like to see Belmont open, as long as it can be made safe. The school is badly needed in an overcrowded area where schools operate on year-round schedules and thousands of students ride buses.

The school board voted in January 2000 to abandon the Belmont project amid concerns about the presence of methane and hydrogen sulfide. But last December, the board agreed to let Romer seek the proposals from the private sector.

One prominent commercial real estate broker predicted that the sale of the property would not generate much interest because of soft downtown real estate values.