Story Published:
Feb 4, 2010 at 1:56 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Feb 4, 2010 at 1:56 PM PDT
HUNTINGTON PARK — A show of force Monday night by parents, students and supporters of two planned charter high schools was too forceful as several hundred people jammed the council chambers and outside corridor.
Council members, in order to make room for people there on other business, postponed the charter issue to a special meeting at 5 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 6550 Miles Ave.
Pacific Charter School Development of Los Angeles wants to build a secondary charter school complex for some 980 students on the three-acre site of the former Sopp Chevrolet Truck dealership at 58th Street and Pacific Boulevard.
Henry Gray, director of community development, said there are three council actions — a zone change from planned industrial development to commercial, which would allow a charter school; a conditional use permit and approval of an environmental impact report (already approved by the Planning Commission); and a development agreement between the city and the charter school developer.
Gray said city staff recommends requiring the developer to build the site in one phase, not the requested two.
Proposed in phase one is a two-story, 32,000-square-foot building on the north side of 58th Street between Pacific Boulevard and Malabar Street to house some 580 students in grades 6 through 12.
The building would be open by September under the developer’s plan.
It would contain 27 classrooms, faculty, administration and counseling rooms, a kitchen, storage and utility areas and a multipurpose room seating 315. A temporary outdoor recreation area of about 29,200 square feet is planned north of the building along with a 60-space parking lot.
Phase two would be a two-story, 34,000-square-foot building on the south side of 58th Street with 19 classrooms holding about 400 students in grades 7 through 12.
It would include a 2,700-square-foot multipurpose room seating 213, faculty, administration and counseling rooms, a kitchen, storage and utility area and a 9,000-square-foot gym and an outdoor soccer field.
That building would be open in 2012, under developer plans, Gray said.
He noted that the gym and soccer field would be open to community use.
The site consists of 13 lots used for automotive sales and one lot containing a single-family home, which would be demolished.
Pacific Charter has developed schools, operated by Aspire, at Saturn Avenue and Alameda Street and Rita Avenue and Clarendon Street, operating four grade schools and a secondary school.
The developers say they need additional high schools for the students now in the elementary classes.
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