Residents fight to save park

Linda Vista residents are campaigning to save a neighborhood park that is set to close next year so school officials can put the property up for lease.

Linda Vista Park is the two-acre former playground for Linda Vista Elementary School, which became a city-maintained park in 2008 after declining enrollment forced the Pasadena Unified School District to close the campus two years earlier.

But now the cash-strapped district hopes to offset state budget cuts by finding a paying tenant for the entire property, including the playground, idle campus buildings and space used by the Linda Vista Children’s Center preschool. The city currently does not pay rent.

Pasadena Supt. Jon Gundry sent letters to the city and preschool in September ordering them to vacate the property by June 22, which would make room for a new leaseholder as early as July.

Park users have called on the district to slow the process, hoping they can convince the city to make an offer that would save the park and the preschool.

“This is a little piece of green where families get together and people get to know each other. We were hoping we could start a conversation before the [vacate] letter was even sent,” said Betsy Nathane, a member of the Linda Vista /Annandale Assn. who cofounded a Friends of Linda Vista Park group.

Councilman Steve Madison, who represents the area, isn’t sure what the city would do with the two dilapidated school buildings, but supports the idea of the city taking over the property.

It could cost nearly $3 million to restore the buildings, said school district Chief Finance Officer John Pappalardo.

The school board previously dismissed thoughts of selling the campus in favor of leasing to the city or a private school, but district documents also ponder redevelopment for housing.

A 2010 study by Los Angeles real estate firm CB Richard Ellis considered fitting as many as 19 housing units on the 4.9-acre property and estimated its value at $17 million. The firm also projected annual lease revenues of $450,000 to $550,000.

Madison said he believes those figures are inflated, adding that using the property as anything other than a school would require zoning changes the council is unlikely to grant.

“It just doesn’t pencil out. I don’t think they can generate the money they want,” Madison said. “We’ll see if we can come up with some resources from the city.”

City officials, however, have their own cash-flow problems as they grapple with a projected $8.2-million budget gap next year.

In a separate matter, city and school officials failed to reach agreement earlier this year over compensation for city use of space at San Rafael Elementary School to host a temporary fire station.

School board member Ramon Miramontes said park advocates should pressure council members “to approach the district with a respectable offer.”

On Dec. 13, Nathane, Linda Vista/Annandale Assn. President Lee Zanteson, association member Nina Chomsky and preschool operators convinced a three-member school board subcommittee to put the brakes on lease plans, but only for a short time.

A vote by the full board on whether to look for tenants was set for next month, but will now take place Feb. 28, after a community meeting in January.

Miramontes, Tom Selinske and Ed Honowitz, who comprise the school board’s Facilities and Capital Projects Subcommittee, voted unanimously for the delay but emphasized the district’s pressing financial need.

“We certainly want to work with the neighbors and the city, but our bottom-line interest is how we can generate revenue at this site,” Selinske said.

“We need to see what creative solutions can come out of this, but the district can’t necessarily subsidize park space,” Honowitz said.

Nathane said she is sympathetic to the district’s needs but is upset with its actions so far.

“We know the schools need money, but they didn’t bother to have a conversation with the people involved. It was ‘Please give us the keys and walk away,’” she said. “The park is part of our community now, and we’d hate to lose it.”