Encinitas to Pay $10M for Pacific View School
The city of Encinitas will pay $10 million for the former Pacific View Elementary School property and keep it as a public space in perpetuity, officials announced Thursday.
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City Councilman Tony Kranz and Encinitas Union School Board President Marla Strich disclosed the purchase price and other sales details during a morning news conference at the northeast corner of the school, which takes up an entire city block along Third Street between E and F streets.
€This morning is about the benefit of getting to the end of a very long and arduous process,€ declared Kranz as TV cameras filmed and onlookers cheered. €The best part is it's soon to be behind us.€
Strich then said, €This is a win-win for both sides €" this is the way the board wanted this to turn out and this is the way the council wanted it to turn out.€
The last-minute purchase deal ended the district's plans to auction off the long-vacant school site and resolved a decade-long debate over what will happen to the 2.8-acre blufftop property.
Kranz, who served on the City Council's negotiating subcommittee, said that many people will probably second-guess the council's 3-2 decision to spend $10 million for the land. They'll think that the city should have gotten the site for less money, he said, but added that spending $10 million was a better decision than taking the school district to court over the auction.
Asked why Encinitas offered more than the district's minimum $9.5 million auction bid, Kranz said, €The $10 million was about stopping the auction and getting the deal done.€
This was the second time in four months that the city has tried to buy the land. In December, the city offered $4.3 million €" an offer school district Superintendent Tim Baird described as ridiculously low. The board rejected it and decided to auction off the land instead.
Tim Baird said Thursday there was significant public interest in the auction. The district received 40 phone calls and had 10 to 15 buyer groups visit the site, he said.
€We were going to have bidders, there's no doubt,€ Baird said.
After the city's last-minute offer came in last week, the school board decided to postpone the auction, which was planned for Tuesday, and began negotiating exclusively with the city.
Kranz and Strich said the details of how and when the city will hand over the money are still being worked out, and probably won't be resolved before mid-May. Strich said the district hasn't decided what it will do with the money, and Kranz said the city hasn't settled how it will pay for the site.
He stressed that even after the land deal is done, the city will face financial challenges €" it doesn't now have the money to transform the property into an arts center as many community members have suggested.
€We've got to be creative, we've got to be patient,€ he told the crowd, saying financing options are being explored.
Some 80 people €" including artists, downtown business owners and residents €" attended Thursday's news conference. Scott Chatfield, who launched a successful email campaign to preserve the property, said he wasn't celebrating the sale quite yet.
€It's too soon to be doing the jig in the street,€ he said, noting that the district and the city are still settling the details.
E Street resident Patty Ley Blackwell said she was €absolutely€ thrilled that the city was buying the old school.
€It's very, very personal to me,€ she said, mentioning that she was in the school's first kindergarten class in the 1950s.
photo
City Councilman Tony Kranz and Encinitas Union School Board President Marla Strich disclosed the purchase price and other sales details during a morning news conference at the northeast corner of the school, which takes up an entire city block along Third Street between E and F streets.
€This morning is about the benefit of getting to the end of a very long and arduous process,€ declared Kranz as TV cameras filmed and onlookers cheered. €The best part is it's soon to be behind us.€
Strich then said, €This is a win-win for both sides €" this is the way the board wanted this to turn out and this is the way the council wanted it to turn out.€
The last-minute purchase deal ended the district's plans to auction off the long-vacant school site and resolved a decade-long debate over what will happen to the 2.8-acre blufftop property.
Kranz, who served on the City Council's negotiating subcommittee, said that many people will probably second-guess the council's 3-2 decision to spend $10 million for the land. They'll think that the city should have gotten the site for less money, he said, but added that spending $10 million was a better decision than taking the school district to court over the auction.
Asked why Encinitas offered more than the district's minimum $9.5 million auction bid, Kranz said, €The $10 million was about stopping the auction and getting the deal done.€
This was the second time in four months that the city has tried to buy the land. In December, the city offered $4.3 million €" an offer school district Superintendent Tim Baird described as ridiculously low. The board rejected it and decided to auction off the land instead.
Tim Baird said Thursday there was significant public interest in the auction. The district received 40 phone calls and had 10 to 15 buyer groups visit the site, he said.
€We were going to have bidders, there's no doubt,€ Baird said.
After the city's last-minute offer came in last week, the school board decided to postpone the auction, which was planned for Tuesday, and began negotiating exclusively with the city.
Kranz and Strich said the details of how and when the city will hand over the money are still being worked out, and probably won't be resolved before mid-May. Strich said the district hasn't decided what it will do with the money, and Kranz said the city hasn't settled how it will pay for the site.
He stressed that even after the land deal is done, the city will face financial challenges €" it doesn't now have the money to transform the property into an arts center as many community members have suggested.
€We've got to be creative, we've got to be patient,€ he told the crowd, saying financing options are being explored.
Some 80 people €" including artists, downtown business owners and residents €" attended Thursday's news conference. Scott Chatfield, who launched a successful email campaign to preserve the property, said he wasn't celebrating the sale quite yet.
€It's too soon to be doing the jig in the street,€ he said, noting that the district and the city are still settling the details.
E Street resident Patty Ley Blackwell said she was €absolutely€ thrilled that the city was buying the old school.
€It's very, very personal to me,€ she said, mentioning that she was in the school's first kindergarten class in the 1950s.
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