L.A. Unified must start over on Maywood school plans
The district abandons its preferred site for a new high school, citing heavy contamination that would cost at least $22 million to clean up.
Los Angeles school officials are starting over on a high school project in Maywood because the preferred site is so contaminated by industrial chemicals that it would cost at least $22 million to clean up, which would delay construction by as much as six years.
The cancellation, announced last week, means that the Los Angeles Unified School District will be forced to break its long-standing pledge to take all schools off year-round operation by 2012. The move also marks the first time that a project has been terminated because of environmental concerns since 2000, when the school board voted to abandon the half-finished Belmont Learning Complex.
About $5 million already has been spent on the Maywood site, but mostly for the school's design, which might be salvageable, L.A. Unified officials said. Finding a suitable location remains a challenge, said Roderick Hamilton, a regional development manager for the district.
"Most of Bell and Maywood are very dense," Hamilton said. "Any place you look at, you are probably displacing a large number of homes or businesses. It's been very difficult to find a site."
The Maywood site, at the corner of Walker Avenue and Randolph Street, appeared to be a good prospect when officials realized that a sign-making company was relocating. No homes and only a few businesses would have been affected. Other sites under consideration would have resulted in removing more than 100 households.
The site's industrial uses have included an auto shop and a paint-mixing factory.
"I wouldn't say there were surprises, but there were concerns that became apparent," said environmental program manager Tom Watson. Tests showed that contamination had reached into groundwater and may have migrated off-site, broadening the necessary cleanup. Addressing those issues would have cost between $22 million and $74 million, Watson said.
L.A. Unified had not yet purchased the property. In the years since the Belmont controversy, the district has performed detailed pre-purchase evaluations on proposed school sites.
Eight years ago, the school board ended the Belmont project west of downtown over concerns about its oil field location. Belmont was ultimately finished as the renamed Roybal Learning Center, which opened this fall. But delays more than doubled a price tag that soared past $400 million.
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