Districts Mount Offensive on Tustin Base

Two Santa Ana school districts could emerge the winners in a high-powered tussle over prime land at the closed Tustin Marine base that is being fought in the final hours of the legislative session today in Sacramento.

Over objections by Tustin city officials, a bill guaranteeing 100 acres of land at the former base for a unique joint campus--taking students from kindergarten through community college--passed a key Assembly committee Wednesday and was expected to win approval by the full Assembly early today. It would then go to the state Senate for a vote. The Legislature must adjourn at midnight tonight.

If approved, the joint campus of the Santa Ana Unified School and Rancho Santiago Community College districts would be a first in California. State and local officials said they know of no other facility capable of taking students from their first year of school to an associate of arts degree. Statewide, there are only 13 schools that include grades kindergarten through 12th grade.

The bill was being pushed by a coalition of Democrats in Orange and Los Angeles counties. Its co-authors are Assemblyman Lou Correa of Santa Ana and state Sens. Joe Dunn of Garden Grove, Richard Polanco of Los Angeles and Hilda Solis of El Monte.

The land war escalated this week when John F. Dean, Orange County’s superintendent of schools, added his support for the joint Santa Ana proposal. Dean’s Department of Education joined the Santa Ana-based districts in 1994 to seek the land at the Tustin base. That plan was approved by the U.S. Department of Education, but later rejected by the city of Tustin, which favors commercial development on the property.

“We remain united in our determination to implement the U.S. Department of Education’s approved plans to share the use of the property with the most needy districts,� Dean said.

Santa Ana Unified and Rancho Santiago are among the most crowded school districts in the state, and desperately need room to grow, he said.

With the deadline looming for passing bills, Santa Ana school officials and their attorney spent Wednesday shuttling between the Assembly floor and private meetings hoping to secure enough support for the bill’s passage. City officials did the same, enlisting state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) to help keep their base redevelopment plan intact.

“I’m doing everything I can to assist the children of Santa Ana,� an anxious Correa said late Wednesday. “There has been a lot of serious discussion on this bill and I’m hopeful it will pass.�

A hoped-for truce fell apart by midmorning Wednesday after Tustin officials balked again at giving up a key chunk of the 1,500-acre base. Tustin Councilwoman Tracy Wills Worley and City Manager William A. Huston flew to Sacramento and testified against the bill.

The city contends that the land sought by the districts, located along Redhill Avenue between Warner Avenue and Barranca Parkway on Santa Ana’s eastern flank, is too valuable as a future commercial moneymaker to give away. Without it, the city’s plan to build new homes, stores and a golf course--to replace the economic benefit from the former base--would fall apart, they said.

Instead, the city agreed to give 100 acres of land on the northwest corner of the base to the South Orange County Community College District. That offer would be unaffected by the Correa bill. The city also is turning over land for homeless housing, a new animal shelter and four new schools for the Irvine and Tustin school districts.

The Correa bill does gives the city the option of finding 100 acres elsewhere on the base for the Santa Ana school site, as long as it isn’t taken away from any of the other public uses.

A behind-the-scenes look at who held out for what at the base has more twists than a telephone cord. At one point, Santa Ana Unified and Rancho Santiago wanted 191 acres of land, while Tustin counter-offered with 10 acres and $3 million.

Santa Ana school officials refused to take no for an answer, even as Tustin officials handed over land to the Irvine and Tustin districts and the South Orange County college district. Santa Ana school leaders enlisted the aid of Correa and Dunn--and even Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove)--to apply pressure on lawmakers to assure Santa Ana a piece of the base.

Frustration escalated on both sides. Tustin insisted it had done enough by turning over nearly one-third of the base for schools, parks and new roads; Santa Ana officials argued that they had no other land available to build another school. At one point, the school board threatened to condemn the property, which is within the Santa Ana Unified School district boundaries.

Tempers flared within the education community, as Santa Ana officials accused South County representatives of negotiating a secret deal with Tustin to cut them out of the school site.

The South County district submitted its own plan to the city after federal education officials had approved a jointly operated site by Santa Ana Unified, the Rancho and South Orange County college districts and the county Department of Education.

“The educational districts with the greatest need are those that should come first in the Marine base planning process,� Rancho Santiago Chancellor Edward Hernandez Jr. said this week. “Our original proposal allocated land according to need, and left no one out.�

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Turf Battle

A bill passed Wednesday in the Assembly would force the city of Tustin to give up 100 acres of land at the closed Tustin Marine base for a unique K-14 campus that would take students from kindergarten through community college. The bill, which must be approved by the Senate, is being fought by city officials, who say the land is too valuable for the base redevelopment plan to give it up.

Source: City of Tustin, Assemblyman Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana)