Huntington Beach City Council Study Session Notes



The Huntington Beach City Council met July 5, 2005 to further discuss the Fountain Valley School District's efforts to sell fields that lie within Huntington Beach city limits. These are some of the items discussed and observations made.

I spoke during the meeting, as I always do, of the importance of saving these fields. I brought up the nature of the Fountain Valley School District's financial problems and inquired about the studies done to determine site values. I asked to have those studies be made available to the public so that we can all see. It is my contention that these fields are highly overvalued and I offered my professional assistance in resolving the issue.

The Planning Department spoke during the session regarding the Surplus Site Overview. City Attorney, McGrath announce that Real Property negotiations for the school sites are on the Closed Session agenda and that the Study Session would only encompass an overview of the topic.

Planning Director Howard Zelefsky gave a verbal report. There are three goals: to preserve as much open space as possible, for Fountain Valley School District to gain as much funding as possible and to protect the playing fields as much as possible.

Further discussion continued regarding current uses of school sites, effective expiration dates of the negotiation processes, and clarification on methodology use to reach the amount of 8.6 acres, the maximum the City is entitled to purchase under the Naylor Act.

In my opinion, the city's position on this situation is very clear. Huntington Beach does not want to end up with high density, low income housing in place of the current open spaces that are currently under consideration. While it's unfortunate that the Fountain Valley School District is suffering from a shortage in operating funds, Huntington Beach shouldn't be burdened to cover the School District's shortfall.

Alan Gandall
President, SaveOurField.org
alan@saveourfield.org
714-968-3023
PO Box 5546
Huntington Beach, CA 92615-5546

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Posted: Wed - July 6, 2005 at 08:08 PM          

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