The City of Redondo Beach and the Redondo Beach Unified School District have agreed in principal to a land swap in which the district will trade its property at 200 North Pacific Coast Highway for the city’s leasehold at 801 Inglewood Avenue.
Additionally, the city has tentatively agreed to use its Redevelopment Agency to lease or purchase the district’s property at 3401 Inglewood Avenue – home to the South Bay Adult School – for an immediate down payment of $700,000 and still-to-be determined ongoing payments. The city’s intent will be to build affordable housing at that site, thereby helping it meet state housing requirements while utilizing Redevelopment Agency funds that are in threat of disappearing under current state budget proposals.
“The agreement is timely as the state acts to cut funding to schools and cities,” said RBUSD board president Jane Diehl. “The agreement is an innovative way to collaborate with the city to generate additional income for the school district and to make good use of the school district’s property assets for community benefit.”
“We are working together,” said Councilman Steve Diels. “Isn’t that kind of cool? This proves that we can work together better than separately, but also that we can work together as opposed to depending on the state.”
The two agencies have been negotiating for more than five years in search an agreement that would allow the district to obtain more cash flow from its surplus properties and allow the city to retain control of 200 N. PCH, which currently houses the RBPD detective bureau. The property is the city’s preferred site for a new police station, given its proximity to City Hall and existing police communication infrastructure.
If all goes as planned, the district will move the South Bay Adult School to the former Franklin School site on 801 Inglewood Ave., which currently houses a community center, a preschool, and the Redondo Beach Playhouse. Part of the agreement stipulates that Franklin Park will remain as a community facility.
The city, meanwhile, hopes to build a new police station within the next five years.
“Our current police facility is over 50 years old,” said City Manager Bill Workman. “It is obsolete. We might be able to get five more years out of the building, 10 at the most. We are at a point where we’d have to put millions more into the facility just to keep it going for the short run.”
The deal, of course, is not quite done. But both sides were optimistic that the broad outlines of the agreement signed as a Memorandum of Understanding on June 16 would be finalized within the next 60 to 90 days. The district’s most recent appraisal, conducted by Parkcenter Realty Advisers, valued the Franklin site at $4.3 million and 200 N. PCH at $6.3 million including an adjacent parking lot, or $4 million without it. The South Bay Adult School, formerly Edison School, has not been recently appraised.
The addition of the Redevelopment Agency funds – and their possible disappearance – appears to have been a powerful incentive for both sides to reach an agreement. Redevelopment Agencies are intended to help cities earmark a portion of property taxes that would otherwise go straight to the state towards investment in underdeveloped areas. The state is contemplating abolishing the agencies in order to keep more property tax revenue in Sacramento.
“I think it provided a deadline,” Diels said. “…It’s been a negotiation and this is just a culmination. We are all looking at the same best interests of the kids.”
RBUSD Superintendent Steven Keller called the immediate infusion of $700,000 into school coffers “music to the school district’s ears” given ongoing state budget cuts that have taken more than $8 million in revenue over the past three years.
“In real terms, when the current Edison site is redeveloped, we are going to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to offset our already struggling budget,” said RBUSD Superintendent Steven Keller. “So this is obviously money for our education programs and for our kids. That is great news for us. And we are certainly hopeful that that $700,000 check is already in the mail.”
Both city and school district officials acknowledged that relations had been strained after several unsuccessful rounds of negotiations.
Most recently, the city and school district came to loggerheads over another district property, 320 Knob Hill. The city formerly housed its recreation and community services department at Knob Hill but left in June after the two agencies could not agree on a new lease terms. The city had paid $302,000 annually, below what the district had determined was market value.
The school district is currently negotiating with the Special Education Local Plan Area [SELPA] offices to relocate from district headquarters to Knob Hill. Terms of the possible deal are not public. The move would also enable the district to better centralize its administrative operations.
Councilman Steve Aspel said that any strain that developed was just a normal part of negotiations.
“It got a little strained for a while but it wasn’t a bad chapter in the relationship, just a strain over Knob Hill negotiations,” Aspel said. “Because the city, for better or worse, tends to discuss things out in the open. We don’t do it in a back room somewhere. We air all the laundry out for everyone to view. So it was never any animosity or anybody wanting to take advantage of the school district, but we have to look out for the best interests of our general fund, also.”
“Everyone is always looking out for the best interests of whom they represent, and that is just where differences arise,” Diehl said. “And that is where we have to meet in the middle.”
Diehl noted that the city has a long history of helping the school district in times of need, particularly when the original 99-year lease at Franklin was signed. The city has also helped arrange two Redevelopment-funded senior housing projects – Seasons and Heritage Point – that have benefited the school district in the past, she said. She also praised previous school board for not selling the properties and instead leasing.
“We would not be talking about this deal if elected officials had not made those deals,” Diehl said. ER
