Tustin, School District Settle Base Dispute

The Santa Ana Unified School District and the city of Tustin settled a nasty land fight Thursday that had spurred accusations of racism and threatened to thwart redevelopment of the former Tustin Marine base.

Under the deal, the Santa Ana district will get 22 acres for a combined elementary and middle school--a fraction of the 100 acres the district wanted--plus $38 million toward the purchase of land for a new high school elsewhere.

If the 22 acres prove too contaminated from years of military use to build a school there, or if for any reason the school district opts not to take it, the city will pay the district $22 million for the land. The state’s Department of Toxic Substance Control will decide how contaminated the land is and what measures must be taken before it is suitable for a school to be built.

“I can’t believe we are about to cross the finish line on this,” Santa Ana board President John Palacio said after a special meeting Thursday at which trustees unanimously approved the deal.

The Tustin City Council is expected to approve the settlement at a special meeting today.

Tustin Mayor Jeffery M. Thomas and Councilwoman Tracy Wills Worley visited the Santa Ana board shortly after its meeting to greet school officials in a show of solidarity after years of acrimony.

“We were all of the mind-set of ‘enough already,’” Worley said. “Nobody got exactly what they wanted, but life is about compromises.”

City leaders want the deal inked before Tuesday, when Navy officials arrive from Washington to officially deed most of the 1,600-acre base to Tustin. The city will sell most of the land to private developers for homes, commercial space and a golf course; the Navy will sell 234 acres for housing.

The agreement ends eight years of fighting over the former helicopter base, which closed in July 1999 with its sister base at El Toro.

Santa Ana Unified and the Rancho Santiago Community College District, based in Santa Ana, were among five school districts originally approved in 1994 to get land on the Tustin base. But Tustin submitted a new plan later that gave 100 acres to the South Orange County Community College District, with schools for districts in Tustin and Irvine--and nothing for Santa Ana.

The land fight escalated in the past 18 months, with the districts filing a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city last year, arguing that its plan was racially biased against the Santa Ana districts, where most students are Latino.

That year, the state passed a law that barred development of the base by Tustin unless the city gave 100 acres for Santa Ana schools or the parties reached an agreement.

The city responded with its own lawsuit, arguing that the state’s intervention violated federal law.

In April, officials at Rancho Santiago agreed to a separate deal with Tustin to get 15 acres. That property, along with the land for Santa Ana Unified, is within the area that had been designated for the South County college district.

Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Anaheim) said Thursday that his bill did exactly what it was supposed to do: compel both parties to reach an agreement.

The city had argued that it could not give 100 acres to Santa Ana Unified without jeopardizing its redevelopment plan. The city needed to sell the land within the Santa Ana district boundaries to commercial developers to help pay for improvements such as streets, sewers and utilities, officials said.

As an alternative, the city offered 22 acres and $38 million to Santa Ana Unified. But the district complained that the land hadn’t been tested for contamination.

In recent negotiations, Tustin sweetened its deal by offering additional cash if the 22 acres weren’t suitable for a school. And if Santa Ana Unified agreed to accept the property, the $38 million would be paid in 18 months rather than four years.

In the end, the parties opted for a settlement rather than taking their chances in court. The Santa Ana district needs land to build schools to ease overcrowding, and the clock was ticking for Tustin as it tried to move forward with its development plans for the former base.

Thursday’s deal puts Santa Ana Unified much closer to its goal of building 11 elementary schools and two high schools since it passed a school bond measure two years ago.

With state matching funds, the district hopes to double the $38 million from Tustin and use most of it to buy the 36-acre Armstrong Ranch in south Santa Ana to build a high school.

Lawyers for Santa Ana said a court hearing last month on a related matter was a turning point in nudging the final settlement deal by Tustin. A judge refused to overturn the state’s right to intervene in the land fight, denying the city’s request to go ahead with plans to relocate the Orange County Rescue Mission at the base.

Tustin City Manager William A. Huston denied Thursday that the judge’s decision had made a difference, saying the city was prepared to appeal. “Each side can always pound their chest and say we won a round in court,” he said. “Both parties recognized that litigation is not the answer.”