ENCINITAS -- School officials in Encinitas are recommending the school district sit tight with its plan to ask the city to rezone a plot of land that once housed Pacific View Elementary School so it can be traded for a revenue-producing property somewhere else.
The district wants the school property to be zoned for residential classification, which could allow as many as 15 homes to be built on the 2.8-acre site.
Residents who live near the property in downtown Encinitas have asked instead that the land be converted into a park. The City Council split earlier this month on a vote to purchase the land for that purpose.
The Encinitas Union School District board of trustees is set to vote on the issue at a meeting scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the district office, 101 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road.
The district has used the site as a storage yard since closing the school in 2003 because of low enrollment.
Plans for the site have been on hold since last year, when the district asked the city's Planning Commission last year to zone it as a mixed-use site with commercial and residential spaces. That plan was fervently opposed by neighbors.
The commission asked the district to change its proposal to better fit in with the surrounding neighborhood.
In the months since, the district has proposed the land be zoned residential. If the city eventually approves that change, the property could then be traded for commercial office space elsewhere that school officials have said could bring the district $400,000 a year.
However, the district's rezoning request is set to expire, so some action by the district is needed to keep it in play.
On Tuesday, Superintendent Lane King will present the school board with four options for the site, but is recommending the district send a letter of intent to the city, declaring the district plans to move forward with the rezoning request when property values rebound.
The other options are to withdraw the request and either trade the property with its current zoning rules, declare it as surplus and sell it, or continue to use it to store equipment.
Earlier this month, the district offered the land to the city for $10 million so that it could be used for a public park. However, that plan failed to gain City Council approval at a June 10 council meeting.
Two of the council members said the city didn't have the money to buy the property, while two other council members said they wanted more information on the proposal. The fifth member, Dan Dalager, owns property across the street from the site and didn't vote on the issue.
Also at Tuesday's Encinitas Union meeting, the board is set to approve a $46 million budget for the 2009-10 school year. That's roughly $4 million less than the district expects to spend this year.
Putting together a budget has been especially difficult this year, as estimates and plans have been in constant flux, said Abby Saadat, assistant superintendent in charge of business service for the district.
"They give you a target, and then they move the target a little bit further away," he said. "This moving target isn't going to be good for anybody."
Call staff writer Stacy Brandt at 760-901-4009.
