District Moving Ahead on Middle School Plan

The Los Angeles Unified School District is moving ahead with controversial plans to build a middle school in a North Hollywood shopping plaza after signals that the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency is easing its opposition to the construction, district officials said.

The two sides, one seeking to build more schools and the other mandated to revitalize blighted areas, have been locked in disagreement over the project for two years. The district wants to build the school in the middle of the 30-acre plaza, but the city said that would disrupt the contiguous design of the shopping center and impair redevelopment.

Earlier this year, the city filed a written challenge to the school district’s plans and said it would consider a lawsuit. But district officials said that, with the help of Mayor James K. Hahn’s office and City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, the city has changed its rigid stance and would not resist the placement of the 1,620-seat school.

“I think we’re working cooperatively,” said James A. McConnell, the district’s chief facilities officer, who added that construction plans, with the school in the middle of the plaza, were not changed.

An environmental impact report was submitted to the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday for the school on the northwest corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Hamlin Street, which runs through the plaza. If the report is approved, district officials said they would then pursue acquisition of the 10-acre school site and break ground in the middle of next year.

City officials would not confirm that plans to sue the district were being dropped, saying Tuesday that negotiations were still in progress.

“The Community Redevelopment Agency and the Los Angeles Unified School District are continuing to work on the issue and progress is being made,” CRA spokeswoman Kiara Harris said in a written statement. She declined to elaborate.

But officials close to the negotiations said CRA Chief Executive Robert R. “Bud” Ovrom has decided not to make the issue any more contentious than it already is.

“Both agencies understand that [suing] is no way to do business,” McConnell said.

CRA board Commissioner Douglas R. Ring said both Ovrom and Hahn want to defuse the issue, but added that a lawsuit would always be an option.

Ovrom declined to be interviewed. The other six commissioners either did not return calls or declined to comment.

The project, temporarily named the East Valley Area New Middle School No. 1, would cost $70 million, according to the district’s environmental impact report.

School officials say they must alleviate crowding at Madison, Reed and Sun Valley middle schools, and further delays could result in the loss of $8 million in state funding for the project.

City officials told The Times in February that the school was originally to have been built on the northern end of the plaza. They said the district imposed its own plan without regard to its effect on merchants.