The Hermosa Beach City Council July 31 rejected the idea of participating in a joint venture to purchase the Marineland Mobile Home Park in conjunction with the Hermosa Beach School District. The vote was 3-1 as Mayor Michael Keegan was the lone dissenter. Councilman J.R. Reviczky was absent from the meeting.

The City Council agreed to the joint public meeting as a way to assist the School Board in reviewing its options for possible land acquisition for the placement of a new gym.

“In looking at it from revenues and expenses incurred, and looking at it from the standpoint of the city making a property purchase, my thoughts are that I would not be willing to put the city in a position where it would buy the property and hire a management company to run it,” said Councilwoman Kathy Dunbabin. “If the School District wants to purchase it, it could purchase it on its own. I would be possibly interested in a joint venture with a developer.”

The matter came to the forefront after the School Board’s June 30 meeting when Keegan announced the Marineland Mobile Home Park was up for sale. Keegan talked with the land’s real estate broker just days before the School Board meeting, who mentioned a figure of about $6.5 million.

“I don’t see how we can finance a part or most of this land acquisition without putting our city in financial duress and also it looks like it’s a clear probability that we will be displacing residents against their will,” said Councilman Art Yoon. “If either one of those two components is a part of a plan, then I can’t support it.”

At its June 30 meeting, the School Board unanimously voted to further examine architectural Plan “B” that would place the gym near the southwest corner of Hermosa Valley’s campus. At the last minute, it also agreed to examine the feasibility of buying the park through a joint partnership with the city.

“I was contacted by some residents who wanted to know what they could to do to expand the school grounds and purchase property,” said Keegan. “They felt all avenues hadn’t been taken, so I called Adelphia and Marineland to see what was going on and that’s when I found out the property was for sale. I thought the opportunity to avoid eminent domain and to go through with a friendly purchase would be, in the long term, a benefit to the residents in the mobile home park. I found out through the management company that five to seven units change hands each year. There are five for sale currently and the park owns three more so I thought there was some movement.”

Resident and local architect Gerry Compton, who lives in an adjacent neighborhood along the northern border of Hermosa Valley School, devised Plan “C.” The plan would place part or the entire gym on property such as the land now occupied by Adelphia Communications along Valley Drive, or Marineland Mobile Home Park acquired by the School District.

“With Plan ‘C’ architect Gerry Compton showed me, I thought with a one- to two-year planning process, those units that are for sale now and the three the park owned there really wouldn’t be that much dislocation,” added Keegan. “This would expand the campus originally designed for 400 to 500 people, but that now has 800 to 900. My intention was to solve the problem there. Also, if the park sold, I thought we’d be soon faced with rent control because if the park did change hands, the property tax would increase to about twentyfold. The owner would want to raise rents and maybe change the structure of the park, and we’d be looking at rent control. I thought if the city or the School District owned it, there wouldn’t be a property tax increase and the units that did remain would probably be in better shape than they currently are now.”

Some residents living in the adjacent neighborhood on streets like Valley Park Avenue, who voted for Measure “J,” a $13.6 million bond, felt misled in that they believed land acquisition was a sure thing. However, measure supporters point out the fact that this alternative was a possibility and never asserted it to be a certainty.

“As Mr. Widman (School Board member) mentioned, Measure ‘J’ authorized the School District to commit itself to any one of a number of projects listed and the gym was one among those projects, along with land acquisition,” said School District Superintendent Duffy Clark. “I think it’s fair to say that the School Board and the School District have spent considerable time and resources exploring the construction of a gym as well as classrooms. So to say that the board wouldn’t build a gymnasium would contradict all of the actions that it and the school community have taken for the last year and a half.”

Under Proposition 39, the district is not required to build a school gym just as in the same way the district is not required to buy land for new school facilities such as classrooms or a gym. Funds generated from the measure are earmarked specifically for school improvement and new facilities. The School District is prohibited from using measure funds on expenses such as teacher salaries or wasting it on ongoing redesign phases.

“I really do believe in the gym, I’m not afraid to say that. I think a gym is great, and I think a grammar school without a gym is an absolute failure and it’s missing something in public education,” said Councilman Sam Edgerton. “The argument here is where to build it. Measure ‘J’ never said we had to buy land to build a gym. The two are not tied together. Measure ‘J’ called for $1.6 million to buy land if it was possible.”

“As far as Plan ‘C,’ it’s never been reviewed by the school architects, as far as I know, and it’s never been reviewed by the School Board itself. To get into a process where we narrow the options by selecting Plan ‘B,’ and at the last minute, we widen them again by considering Plan ‘C’ because we have uncertainties, is not only detrimental from a planning process, but it involves evicting people out of their homes. I’m simply not in favor of it. I’m not in favor of evicting anyone. I would like to talk about mitigation measures for people living in the north end next to the campus so that maybe it could be better than the way it is now without a gym.”

The School Board initially looked at the idea of buying the land now occupied by Adelphia Communications but has since abandoned the venture. The board contended the project would have been too time-consuming since the corporation was in the midst of bankruptcy and too expensive since the School District would have to pay for the company’s relocation.

“I can tell you flat out that not only has there never been any comments made by any member of the School Board about buying, bulldozing, evicting Marineland residents publicly, but I can tell you no comment has ever been made privately,” said School Board member Lance Widman. “There’s nothing in Measure ‘J’ that requires us to buy property or that we even build a gym. Measure ‘J’ was an authorization for us to make long-overdue improvements to the educational plant at Valley and at View schools. Contrary to what may be out there on the street, this board has been moving in a very diligent fashion to explore our options. The possibility of the mobile home park as an option has been discussed for some time; that, Adelphia and possible residential properties. All we are doing is looking at options right now. We are at a very conceptual stage right now.”

The School District initially considered purchasing the 24,000-square-foot Adelphia property located next door to Hermosa Valley School. From an economic standpoint, City Manager Steve Burrell informed the city it was a sound investment. Any private developer who bought the land and wished to develop it into something other than for the use of mobile homes would need to obtain a city zone change and a general plan change via the City Council.

“The only way the city could purchase Marineland would be to finance it,” he said. “The city doesn’t have millions of dollars where we could just go buy it. The projections and the information we provided of what the interest currently is, which was based on rates from a couple of weeks ago, and what that debt service would be, along with the income the park receives, it comes out as pretty much a positive. There has been no detailed analysis of potential improvements or repairs to the park.”

Some residents are unhappy with the recently approved Plan “B” that places the gym in the southwest corner of the campus. They feel the new facility would generate major parking and traffic problems on their streets.

“From what I understand, Plan ‘B’ is set up so there is no question of anyone being relocated. If that is true then that is what should be seriously considered,” said Marineland resident Marie Horowitz. “As far as the housing element for the city, Marineland is a vital part of that. It may be that some of the owners of the high-bracket homes to the north may think that it isn’t classy to have a mobile home park, but we’re pretty classy. We’re a classy, intelligent group and we intend to fight for what we know is fair. We will not be shuffled around.”

Those residents living in the neighborhood along Valley’s northwest border who oppose Plan “B” favor scenario “A” that would have put the gym on the southern half of the school’s main parking lot located along Valley Drive.

“I think Plan ‘C,’ while of good intentions, has really gummed up the work here because as everyone has said the School Board has never considered Plan ‘C’ as an option,” said School Board member Cathy McCurdy. “I am not defending Plan ‘C,’ I think it has some good points if we were only able to take a portion of the property behind Adelphia, for example, to straddle part of the gym. I have never, and if someone can find the quote, said that I wanted to bulldoze the mobile home park and evict the residents, not even 12 residents. I have never stated that publicly.”

Plan “A” would require the replacement of lost parking space by building more on the northern portion of the school field.

“It sounds like this point (Plan ‘C’) is moot,” said resident and local architect Larry Peha. “I like to say that we can put this behind us. We’ve looked at it, we’ve studied it and now it’s time to move on. Plan ‘B’ is still in design development so let’s see what we can do with it. Let’s try to make it work.”

Many other residents are dissatisfied with both options and urged the School Board to start from scratch with the placement of a gym with a height of between 30 and 33 feet, and a density of between 10,000 and 14,000 square feet.

“I guess you could say I’m part of the reason we are here tonight since I’m the one who put together the infamous Plan ‘C,'” said Compton. “The reason I put that plan together is because of Plan ‘B.’ When the School Board approved Plan ‘B,’ it was pretty obvious that I was going to be living next to free basketball courts and that’s a pretty major impact on my life.”