Ocean View School District plans workforce housing at vacant former school sites
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The Ocean View School District is planning to build workforce housing at two closed elementary school sites in Huntington Beach, allowing some employees to live in town rather than facing potentially long commutes.
Pleasant View closed in 1985, and Sun View closed in 2018. In recent years, the latter site has served as an interim campus while other schools in the district have been modernized with Measure R funds.
The district has received 25 proposals from developers for housing on those sites, OVSD Assistant Supt. of Administrative Services Keith Farrow said.
The topic was discussed in closed session at Tuesday night’s district board meeting.
Farrow, the chief business official for the district, made a presentation to the trustees in open session. He said that district goals include generating revenue, preserving community green space, supporting stability and property values in district neighborhoods and reducing vandalism and misuse at now-vacant properties.
Ocean View School District Board President Gina Clayton-Tarvin said that with the district’s declining enrollment, it makes sense to explore other uses for properties. Of the district’s 25 properties, there are 13 functioning school sites, she said.
Other OVSD sites are also expected to be developed in the future, though the board has not indicated that it plans to sell any district property.
Enrollment in the district has decreased by nearly 23% — almost 2,000 students — over the last decade.
“[Both communities] really lend themselves to workforce housing, to make sure that we have affordable housing for our employees and for others,” Clayton-Tarvin said. “I want to reiterate to the community … when we look at affordable housing, we’re talking about not just for OVSD employees, but there’s an opportunity for other school district employees, for police and fire [employees]. We open this up to public employees, and then after that to the general public, to be able to reside in Huntington Beach where they work.”
Farrow said he hopes to have a proposal related to Pleasant View and Sun View for possible board action at the meeting on July 14.
“At the same time, the district is working with legal counsel and the board on the next two developments,” he said.
The board directed the exploration of workforce housing at Pleasant View and Sun View in October. A Request for Proposals was issued, a 90-day window that recently concluded, during which developers could ask questions and submit complete proposals.
Pleasant View is an approximately 10-acre site located between Heil and Warner avenues alongside the 405 Freeway. The site includes a 1.7-acre district-owned pocket park, which would remain, with developers required to plan for at least 2 acres of additional green space that could be used for youth soccer fields as well as 30 parking spaces.
Sun View is located at Heil Avenue and Beach Boulevard, an approximately 13-acre site adjacent to the Bella Terra shopping mall with a 2.5-acre city-owned park nearby. Again, developers were required to consider additional green space for two soccer fields and 50 parking spaces.
“We’re most concerned with preserving open space,” Clayton-Tarvin said. “That’s No. 1, because the open spaces that the Ocean View School District has are really the only ones that youth sports can use. Unfortunately, the city of Huntington Beach has left us with very little for our kids to use. The responsibility was shifted to the districts years ago, way before I became a board member.”
Developers will be covering the costs for building on both sites, Farrow said, so the district will not incur any costs for the project.
