Calabasas middle school dispute heads to court
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn NOT DONE YET-Although grading is already in progress at the site of new middle school in Calabasas along Mulholland Highway, a court must decide a dispute over the value of the land.

Final settlement talks failed to produce a deal last week in the disputed purchase of 31 acres of land for the new middle school near Calabasas.

The yearlong stalemate between Las Virgenes Unified School District (LVUSD) and Calabasas Estates, owners of the property, appears to be headed for a jury trial beginning next month.

Construction on the 35-classroom school at 22450 Mulholland Highway in Los Angeles County—on the eastern border with Calabasas—began last spring after the school district took possession of the property through eminent domain. Since then, the two sides have been unable to agree on the value of the land.

At stake is millions of taxpayer dollars, including an estimated $250,000 or more in legal costs the school district might owe.

"They’re taking a big risk with public funds," said David Spiegel, one of the landowners.

Spiegel said the district’s expense could approach $9 million if it becomes forced by a jury to pay "market value" for the property and other fees.

LVUSD officials said taxpayers deserve to pay much less. The district offered an appraisal of $1.25 million when it took control of the property in the summer of 2000, but later upped its offer to $1.68 million, according to sources. Calabasas Estates appraised the land at $5.75 million and seeks another $1.3 million in financial damages.

"There’s obviously a huge discrepancy between their value and our value and one of the things we would like to see is having some independent person appraise the property and maybe look at that," said Wendy Wiles, the LVUSD attorney.

Neither side could agree on the details of a third party study.

Attempts to reach a compromise figure of about $3 million during mediation talks on Jan. 2 proved unsuccessful. A closed door meeting with the LVUSD Board of Education a week later also failed to produce an agreement.

Regarding the property’s value, landowners said zoning laws at the time of condemnation would have allowed them to develop 30 luxury homes, worth millions of dollars. Land values are typically linked to their development potential and the landowners said they planned to obtain building entitlements when the district took possession of the site.

The North Area Plan later cut the allowable number of homes in half.

"The issue is not necessarily what the property was at the time of condemnation, but what is the highest and best use of the property," said Arnold Graham, attorney for the landowners. "Even the school district doesn’t deny it was developable."

Both sides will likely attack the accuracy of each other’s appraisal.

A trial date in Los Angeles County Superior Court has been set for Feb. 25 and Graham predicts the jury will settle on an amount that fairly splits the two appraisals.

The case also includes charges by private landowner Richard DeSantis who said the school district’s acquisition has interfered with his right to use the property for horseback riding. DeSantis believes he has on easement on the property and wants to be reimbursed more than $300,000 by the school district.

Dozens of witnesses are expected to be called during the trial, including land-use experts, geologists, appraisers and civil engineers.

Spiegel and his partner Carey Hellman also will argue that the construction of an accredited middle school only requires about half the amount of land the district has taken.

"That’s absurd," countered deputy superintendent Donald Zimring, the school district’s point man during the negotiations. "The 31 acres is going to barely give us the site we need."

The state Department of Education, Zimring said, approved the acquisition of all 31 acres.

Hellman said earlier that he’d agree to drop the acreage issue if the school district increased its offer. LVUSD reportedly balked at that proposal.

In addition to classrooms for 900 students, the 115,000 square-foot school will have a library, science labs, gymnasium and multi-purpose room for music, choir and drama. Additional construction calls for outdoor basketball courts and fields for soccer, flag football and softball.

The school is scheduled to open in the fall of 2003.

LVUSD has had previous experience on eminent domain matters.

Zimring said it took three years for a settlement to be reached on a condemnation case involving Bay Laurel Elementary School in Calabasas. During that time, the school was fully built and occupied.

A similar strategy is underway at the Calabasas middle school where the district has the legal authority to begin building a school—several million dollars in work already is underway—yet without a deed to the parcel.

Because the attorney Graham represented LVUSD in the Bay Laurel condemnation, the district tried to have him removed as the opposing lawyer in the middle school case. A judge allowed Graham to remain, however.

A former neighbor to the middle school property, Gary Gitlin, filed a lawsuit in 2000 that said the district’s environmental study was inadequate, but later dropped his suit.

Other homeowners battled the school on grounds it would bring more traffic to the area and endanger pedestrians.

Proponents said the school will alleviate serious crowding at A.E. Wright, the middle school in the western part of the city that’s said to be 50 percent over capacity.