High school issues are in the trustees' hands

Strangely, many residents are still addressing the City Council on matters relating to Yorba Linda’s long-awaited public high school.

Speakers often ask council members to move forward with the city’s first high school during the council’s public comment period, and a recent Letter to the Editor in the Star berated the council for pushing the Town Center project instead of the new high school.

Actually, all high school issues are now in the hands of the five elected trustees of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District. And they’ve consistently maintained the new campus on north Fairmont Boulevard will be ready for students in the fall of 2008.

Of course, the school was delayed because trustees had to sue the city’s Redevelopment Agency to obtain funding the city promised the school district under a 1983 agreement. A further delay occurred when council members appealed a ruling in favor of the schools.

But eventually, the city and school district settled the long-running feud, partly because council members couldn’t spend redevelopment money on their Town Center project until they reached a new agreement with the school district.

The city spent $1,405,511 on the lawsuit and another $583,518 on the appeal.

Meanwhile, school officials are moving ahead with site acquisition and educational specifications for the campus, which will open to 9^th and 10^th grade students.

Superintendent Dennis Smith recently told his 29-member Community Advisory Council that the district is planning a comprehensive boundary-adjustment process.

The process is likely to begin next year and will require a full year to establish a recommendation for consideration by trustees, Smith told the Advisory Council.

At the beginning of the current school year, 3,769 Yorba Linda students were enrolled at the district’s three comprehensive high schools, including 2,469 at Esperanza, 1,029 at El Dorado and 271 at Valencia. The previous year’s total was 3,594 Yorba Linda students.

Obviously, not all Yorba Linda students will attend the new high school. The boundary committee, headed by Assistant Superintendent David Verdugo, will have a challenging task as the group works out attendance areas for the high school and its feeder schools.

Smith told Advisory Council members that enrollment at each comprehensive high schools will range from 1,600 to 2,000 students, when the Yorba Linda campus is ready.

The district also will carry out an extensive demographic study to develop long-range enrollment projections for all of its schools, according to Smith.

A FINAL NOTE—Yorba Linda students continue to flock to the open-enrollment International Baccalaureate and computer technology programs at Valencia High School.

Next year’s IB program will enroll 333 students, including 145 from Yorba Linda. The computer tech sequence will enroll 143 students, including 51 from Yorba Linda.

And dozens of Yorba Linda students in the seventh- and eighth-grade GATE magnet program at Kraemer Middle School will be taking nine classes on the Valencia campus.

The classes include Honors Algebra, Honors Geometry, Geometry, Algebra II/Trig, Biology, Beginning Drama, Computer Applications, French I and Japanese I.

Council members have strayed from campaign promises

Residents are still challenging City Council actions to increase housing density in western and central Yorba Linda, including the historic downtown area, which city leaders call "the heart and soul of the community."

The dialogue is often contentious, and council members sometimes fail to provide a fair forum for opposing opinions during their twice-monthly meetings. But the controversy reminds us of a major reason for this town's incorporation 38 years ago.

Voters chose cityhood in 1967 to wrest control of zoning matters from planning bureaucrats in Santa Ana, and in 1972 residents approved a strict low-density General Plan to guide future growth.

In municipal elections ever since, winning candidates have touted their low-density platforms, including the balloting that selected the current council members in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

A review of campaign materials mailed to voters' homes in those years shows that Allen Castellano, Mike Duvall, Ken Ryan, Jim Winder and Keri Wilson were all riders on the low-density political bandwagon.

In 2000, Ryan noted, "We must maintain our high quality community identity and small-town charm," and pledged, "I will use all my skills to preserve Yorba Linda." In his 2002 re-election campaign, he claimed, "I have consistently voted to maintain our low-density General Plan."

Wilson, who was Ryan's 2002 running mate, maintained, "Our zoning has promoted low and medium density housing. We cannot tolerate high-density housing or destruction of our open spaces."

In 2000, Winder noted, "We must protect the unique quality created by our hillsides, streetscapes, semi-rural and developed neighborhoods." In 2004, he took credit for opposing two "unnecessary" General Plan amendments "which allowed 598 additional housing units."

And in 2004, Duvall promised, "My goal is to maintain the quality of life we have all come to enjoy."

But maintaining the city’s "small-town charm" and "quality of life" shouldn’t involve high-density zoning changes concentrated in the city’s western and central regions, whose residents established the low-density environment so many people moved to Yorba Linda to enjoy.

Of course, council members also campaigned for the Town Center project. However, their promises were similar to Castellano's 2004 pledge to "restore our historic Main Street." Voters heard words like "preserve” and “protect,” not "high-density," "more traffic" and “we’ll reposition longtime homes and businesses.”

The latest Town Center concept plan envisions a range of 155 to 185 housing units on 16 acres of the original first phase, including seven single-family and from 80 to 100 courtyard units on the 4.7-acre “strawberry field” parcel on the east side of Lakeview Avenue just south of Lemon Drive.

But, as Ryan is fond of saying, "The devil’s in the details," and we won't know the full details until many months from now, when the real plans and numbers are presented for council discussion and action.

A FINAL NOTE--Some residents see the council's recent rejection of a 114-unit senior apartment complex on five acres at the southeast corner of Mariposa and Lakeview avenues as a hopeful sign for future decisions on high-density development.

But one reason they gave for nixing the project--that it was too dense for a major entrance to the city--should apply to all of Yorba Linda's neighborhoods, not just the city's prominent entryways.