School Properties to Be Used as Parks

In an effort to create more parks in an era of tight budgets, Glendale city and school officials have decided to turn three school playgrounds into public parks during non-school hours.

The joint-use parks, which are still in the design phase, will convert Fremont, Cerritos and Franklin elementary school playgrounds into public parks for use after school, on weekends and in summer. The estimated cost is $3.4 million and may involve shutting down two streets in order to merge city and school properties.

Officials expect to break ground by late summer -- some projects will require rehabilitating or erecting new buildings -- and to open the parks in 2005.

Officials also are analyzing eight other school sites for conversion and will present their findings to the City Council and school board by early April.

The idea of such projects, though not new, is an example of “cities and schools looking at how they can utilize their respective resources -- whether land, facilities or money -- in a way that really serves the broader community,” said Glendale City Manager James Starbird. “Today, you really can’t afford ... to operate separately.”

The converted playgrounds will give the city about 3 1/2 more acres of park space, said George Chapjian, Glendale’s director of parks, recreation and community services.

The city currently has about 1.4 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. Its goal is six acres per 1,000 residents.

These joint-use projects benefit everyone by letting schools divert some operating costs to the city, while opening up facilities to the public, said Stephen Hodgson, chief business and financial officer for the Glendale Unified School District.

He said an example is Glendale’s Edison School-Pacific Park project, which opened in July 2003. The project coupled a new elementary school with a city park, library and gymnasium.

The cities of Burbank, Beverly Hills and La Canada Flintridge have similar joint-use agreements.