Proposal for High School on MTA Land Is Opposed

A proposal to build a high school on MTA land next to the North Hollywood Red Line subway station drew objections Tuesday from City Councilman Joel Wachs, redevelopment officials and neighbors who said the site is needed for commercial development to help revitalize the blighted community.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has put its development plans on hold at the request of Los Angeles Unified School District officials.

“They requested the opportunity to negotiate for 90 days on the possibility of putting a public high school there,” said Carol Inge, director of station development for the MTA. “We are interested enough in the school district’s request to take it to the board.”

Wachs said retail development of the MTA land was a key part of the Community Redevelopment Agency’s plans to revitalize the deteriorated commercial core of North Hollywood. He suggested a site for the school around Vineland Avenue, a few blocks to the east.

“It would really deprive the community of a much-needed economic opportunity,” Wachs said of the proposal.

Before the school district proposed putting high schools near the North Hollywood and Wilshire / Vermont subway stations, the MTA had received interest from dozens of developers to compete for the right to build commercial and retail complexes on those sites.

In particular, a mixed-use commercial and residential development of the MTA land in North Hollywood was seen as critical to the success of a large commercial and office complex planned by developer J. Allen Radford, just to the south of the subway property.

“It’s not a place for a school to be,” said Lillian Burkenheim, the CRA’s project manager in North Hollywood. “We’ve been working hard to put retail along Lankershim [Boulevard]. That is not the best place for a school.”

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Opposition to the school proposal was also voiced by attorney Glenn Hoiby, president of North Hollywood Concerned Citizens group and Ann Hoyt, former member of an elected citizens advisory panel created by the Los Angeles City Council to oversee redevelopment in North Hollywood.

“It’s a bad idea,” Hoyt said. “Prime commercial property is so scarce here and a high school would not turn the area around.”

Hoiby agreed that the school would waste the potential of the commercial property around the subway station.

“It’s not the highest, best use of that property,” Hoiby said. “Developing that commercially has a greater potential for bringing jobs and business into the community.”

That same argument was made by Loretta Dash, past president of the Universal City/North Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who favors commercial development on the site.

The MTA property is attractive to the school district because it is “clear and clean” and does not require the removal of homes or the environmental cleanup that have stymied other proposals, said Kathi Littmann, director of school building planning.

“This actually makes a whole lot of sense,” Littmann said. “It’s exactly where we need it. It’s right in the center of the demographic area.”

The proposal is for a 2,000-student high school, costing up to $44.7 million.

The district is considering the MTA site and four others: the city Department of Water and Power’s Anthony Office Building in Sun Valley, a former Carnation food research center at Van Nuys Boulevard and Lanark Street, a former Gemco site at Van Nuys Boulevard and Beachy Avenue and a parcel on the Cal State Northridge campus.

School officials said five new San Fernando Valley high schools and 10 campuses in other parts of the district are needed for the 23,000 additional high school students expected by 2006. Even if all the schools are built, overcrowding would require all schools to be open year-round.

The school district has faced strong opposition on some proposals for new schools, including the Gemco site and parcels at Valley Plaza and Laurel Plaza.

Retail development around the subway station is considered a catalyst for increasing the viability of Radford’s plans for a 1.8-million-square-foot commercial and office development on nearby private land.

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Meanwhile, the Radford project appears to have suffered another setback. Proposed movie sound stages were dropped a year ago, and now Radford is delaying for 18 months plans to build a 14-screen movie theater.

Redevelopment officials are recommending that the movie theater not be part of the first phase, citing the glut of theaters in the area.

Inge said she plans to ask the MTA board on Jan. 25 to consider approving negotiations with the school district for up to 13 acres, most of which are at the northeast corner of Lankershim Boulevard and Chandler Boulevard South.