NORTH COUNTY
–
San Dieguito Union High School District trustees have gotten their first look at a proposal from La Costa Valley residents to restrict how the district uses vacant land off Calle Barcelona.
Trustees responsed mostly with legal questions.
Later this month, the board is expected to revisit the residents' proposal, which calls for a deed restriction on 22 acres south of Calle Barcelona between Rancho Santa Fe Road and El Camino Real.
La Costa Valley residents have said the district reneged on plans to build a middle school on the property, while the district has said flattening enrollment since 2000 forced a change of plans.
Directors of the La Costa Valley homeowners association say they want legally binding guarantees that the district will build a school there eventually or make sure the land is used for a community park.
The association's directors have said that 2,750 homeowners have paid a Mello-Roos tax amounting to about $800 annually and that they should benefit directly from their property taxes.
San Dieguito administrators have said that more than $23 million of the tax dollars collected within the tax district have been put to good use, as allowed under the law. Campuses in the district that La Costa Valley children are or will be attending have been renovated and modernized.
Some La Costa Valley residents remain unsatisfied.
“We cannot understand why ... the district wouldn't support a limitation” on the district's title to the property, resident Leonard Steinberg said at a school board meeting Thursday night.
“It seems to us and the homeowners that we represent that clearly this is something that would benefit this community since, after all, it is our money that paid for that school site.”
Andrew Weis, a homeowners association director, told the school board that his association wants the district to act soon.
“If this deed restriction is not finalized by Oct. 31 ... we're going to do what we need to do to ensure success,” Weis said. “We're not sure what that is. We're hoping that this will be resolved.”
School trustees said a long list of questions need to be addressed before they can consider any proposal to place restrictions on the deed. Among them:
What percentage of the homeowners who live within the tax district (known as Community Facilities District 94-2) are members of the La Costa Valley homeowners association?
Can the school board enter into an agreement with the La Costa Valley homeowners association if the tax district includes homeowners who are not members of that association?
How do other homeowners associations within the tax district feel about the La Costa Valley proposal?
Can the current school board legally encumber future school boards with such a deed restriction?
Would a deed restriction violate provisions of the original Mello-Roos tax district?
San Dieguito administrators and attorneys are expected to address the issues in coming weeks, before the school board casts a final vote on the proposal.
Trustee Dee Rich suggested that the school district and La Costa Valley residents are more in line with their goals for the property than some people might realize.
“Obviously, we want a school built there,” she said.
“Demographics change. Why do we have to put anything on the property if we want to put a school there? What is the problem with simply holding on to the property?”
Bruce Lieberman: (760) 476-8205; bruce.lieberman@uniontrib.com
