District Shouldn’t Use Eminent Domain

We simply do not understand the fuss the Capistrano Unified School District is purporting to make over the land that will eventually be home to a new high school in San Juan Capistrano (“Catholic vs. Public School: Feud Is Brewing Over Site,” June 26). Capistrano Unified is the same school district that time and again complains of overcrowding and the need to build more schools.

A new high school, whether it is Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist or public, would greatly ease the overcrowding that this district claims to have. Indeed, it will relieve the school district from finding 1,800 seats, textbooks and parking spaces. One would think that Capistrano Unified would be applauding the efforts of the private school’s founders and donors and even offer its own services, advice and good wishes rather than planning for an eminent domain fight.

Capistrano Unified now proposes to spend thousands, if not millions, of dollars in legal proceedings against the private school so that it can build a school of its own design.

As a community, we should support Junipero Serra High School’s efforts to build a $70-million facility in our backyard--a facility that will reach out to host and support community activities as well as provide a quality education for 1,800 students. We should not be arguing over who builds a school so long as our children are provided with a top-notch education in an environment conducive to learning.

Stewart S. Mims

Robin A. Mims

Laguna Niguel

David Doomey, assistant superintendent of facilities planning for the Capistrano Unified School District, is quoted as saying “So far, we have not uncovered anything that would preclude us from pursuing the site for a future middle school.”

It is this level of thinking that has caused the district to spend, by Doomey’s calculations, nearly 15 years searching for a school site in San Juan Capistrano.

The fact that this property was purchased legally by a private group, one that has been planning for three years the construction of a private high school at this site, should represent the most glaring issue precluding the school district from using eminent domain authority to acquire the site.

School board members and district officials should welcome and applaud the initiative displayed by the founders of Junipero Serra High School who will, completely through private funds, provide a new high school for 1,800 students, helping relieve the district’s overcrowding.

Eminent domain is a tool of last resort to acquire for public benefit property that does not, by and large, meet the intent of the general plan for an area. For a school district to use this vehicle as a means of snatching a site from the backers of a private school is both poor public policy and mean-spirited.

Sharon Walraven

Laguna Niguel