Plans Offered to Clean Up, Finish Belmont Project

The Belmont Learning Complex, once the pariah of the Los Angeles school district, is attracting intense interest from developers who want to finish the campus and open it within two years.

One plan envisions a charter school for 3,600 students, a health clinic and a city park at the site west of downtown. Two other plans call separately for a mega-campus of 4,000 to 5,000 students. All would be protected from dangerous underground gases by extensive ventilation systems.

The proposals and others like them will be submitted to the district today by private developers who want to clean up contaminated land at the site and finish the abandoned high school.

The costs associated with the proposals were not available Tuesday. The expense remains a significant concern at a site that has already cost $170 million.

Still, the developers’ competing bids attest to their belief in Belmont’s potential as a school site. All agree on one critical fact: Despite explosive methane and toxic hydrogen sulfide gases beneath the school, it can be made safe.

“Fixing environmental problems is just a question of dollars,” said Bob Sonnenblick, managing partner of Sonnenblick Del Rio Development, a Brentwood firm that is proposing to build a 4,000-student school. “A proper environmental [improvement] plan can be put together on this site without a problem.”

The proposals due today are the result of an effort by Supt. Roy Romer to enlist the private sector in resolving the future of the troubled Belmont site, which sits on top of a former oil field. Development teams have been asked to entertain various options, from finishing the school and leasing it back to the district to buying the 34-acre property outright.

School board members had not seen any proposals late Tuesday. School board President Caprice Young said she was anxious to see the details, although she urged caution on a project that has dragged on for years.

“This certainly provides some hope, but I’ve stopped second-guessing Belmont,” Young said. “Every time I think we’ve got it resolved, something happens. We’ll just proceed as thoughtfully as we can.”

The fate of these proposals remained uncertain on a school board that has been sharply divided over the future of Belmont. At least one board member, David Tokofsky, said the proposed schools are too large.

“Every high school in the district that has 3,600 students or more is doing miserable,” he said.

The best known of the proposals comes from a coalition of prominent Latino leaders, known collectively as the Alliance for a Better Community.

The Alliance proposal calls for a charter high school of 3,600 students operating on the traditional fall-to-spring calendar. The school, divided into four academies, would open in September 2003. It would be run by Edison Schools, the nation’s largest private manager of public schools.

The Alliance proposes other facilities at the site after the school opens, such as a medical clinic, a community center and space for social service agencies. The school facilities could be used for adult education at night, and a portion of the site also could be turned into a city park.

“We’re focused on the education of our children and the future of our community,” said Alliance President Ed Avila, the former head of the city redevelopment agency. “The most important thing is getting the school completed.”

Under the Alliance plan, a ventilation system would be installed to extract and treat gas beneath the school. In addition, a thin polyethylene membrane will be installed below the surface to contain any remaining gas. Both methods are common in other hazardous waste sites, officials and regulators said.

“We’re confident we can control the methane and hydrogen sulfide and we’re confident the site can be made safe,” said Bryan Stirrat, president of Bryan A. Stirrat & Associates, a civil engineering firm working with the Alliance.

Similar strategies for controlling the contamination are being proposed by other groups vying for the Belmont contract. The Sonnenblick Del Rio plan, for example, calls for installing a piping system that would literally vacuum methane from the ground.

“These kind of methane recovery systems are not difficult to install,” Sonnenblick said.

His firm is submitting two options. Under one, it would buy the Belmont property, fix the environmental problems, finish the school and lease it back to the district. The school would serve about 4,000 students, and would open in the fall of 2004.

Alternatively, the company is proposing to buy the site outright and turn it into office space.

A third proposal, from the Washington-based Eastridge Cos., also would finish the school and serve about 5,000 students. Eastridge would develop the project with the intent of leasing it back to L.A. Unified. The company would offer the district the options of adding an aquatic center, a community center, a park and housing units for school faculty or low-income residents. The Eastridge plan also would treat gases found in the ground.

A panel of real estate and engineering experts will spend the next two to three weeks evaluating the proposals and report back to the school district. Officials expect to make a recommendation to the school board by early December.

Separately, a local school reform organization today will release the results of a survey of parents and students from the Belmont area.

The survey sought to gauge opinions about the proposed school. It found that 80% of polled parents, and 94% of students, want the new school completed. Nearly three-quarters of the 333 parents interviewed said they would be willing to send their children to the school.

“They are saying they need this complex finished so [their children] have access to better opportunities,” said Sonia Hernandez, president of the Los Angeles County Alliance for Student Achievement, which sponsored the survey. “The move to finish the school should not be held up.”