Litigation Fears Nix Proposed Land Swap

The Edison School site, current home of the , will no longer be included in a proposed land swap between the Redondo Beach Unified School District and the city, .

"When we looked at all the facts, we decided that it was not in the best interest of the school district to take Edison and not use it for an adult school," said school board president Jane Diehl.

The school district and city will now shift gears towards creating a new memorandum of understanding focusing on the exchange of the district's property at 200 N. Pacific Coast Hwy. and the Franklin School site at 801 Inglewood Ave., which also belongs to the district.

In June of this year, the that proposed the Edison School site at 3401 Inglewood Ave. be given to the city in exchange for the Franklin site, the current home of the Redondo Beach Playhouse, a community center and a preschool.

The South Bay Adult School would then be moved to the Franklin site.

The school district actually owns all three properties; however, the city holds a long-term lease on the Franklin site and leases one floor of the property on Pacific Coast Highway for the Redondo Beach Police Department's investigations bureau. The city wants to move the entire Police Department to the Pacific Coast Highway property.

The potential exchange drew the ire of Redondo Beach residents, namely due to the possible construction of affordable housing at the Edison site and the legality of spending Measure C funds at Franklin instead of Edison.

Measure C, voted on by residents in February of 2008, specifically states that improvements would be made to the Edison School site. The Franklin School site is not mentioned in Measure C.

At a , Board of Education and City Council members revealed to residents in attendance that the school board had been in contact with its bond attorney regarding the possible shift of funds from Edison to Franklin.

The school board did not release the verdict from their attorney, and Diehl commented that while the attorney's opinion was taken into consideration, the ultimate decision came down to the opinions of the board members.

"Basically, this is just part of the law, and part of the law in dealing with these bond situations is that whatever decision we would have made, we would have had to engage in some litigation," Diehl said.

"That has nothing to do with what the attorney said other than the attorney told us getting into litigation is just not useful," she added.

Councilman Matt Kilroy, who was also on hand for the Sept. 26 joint meeting, commented that he believes it the right decision to leave the Edison site out of negotiations.

"From the city's end, I think it's best not to have Edison included in the deal," Kilroy said. "I just don't think that it is a good fit. I think it causes so much havoc in two neighborhoods. There really is no upside for the school district."

The woman who spearheaded the campaign against the proposed land swap, Dr. Holly Osborne, told the Daily Breeze that she was pleased at the outcome.

"I hope that the planned modernization [at Edison] will now take place ... and there will be no more delays," she told reporter Rob Kuznia.

The question now: how will the redevelopment funds that were to be spent at Edison come into play with the new memorandum of understanding?

The initial hope of the city was to create a state-mandated affordable housing project at the Edison site. Now that the Edison site is off the table, there lies the issue of how those funds will be allocated.

"That's a good question," Kilroy said. "Obviously, those funds come from the redevelopment agencies and are specifically earmarked for affordable housing projects. We can't just give those funds away if they're not part of an affordable housing deal."

Both Diehl and Kilroy said that the new memorandum will be written within the next few weeks, possibly in time for the next school board meeting on Oct. 19.