Story Created:
Feb 11, 2010 at 1:24 PM PST
Story Updated:
Feb 12, 2010 at 10:09 AM PST
HUNTINGTON PARK — The City Council is expected to give final approval at its meeting Tuesday to a development agreement for two charter high schools at the corner of 58th Street and Pacific Boulevard.
The site used to be the Sopp Chevrolet Truck dealership.
A tentative agreement reached at a special meeting Monday night with Pacific Charter School Development of Los Angeles, calls for a two-phase project as proposed by the city, said Henry Gray, director of community development.
The council will meet Tuesday because City Hall will be closed Monday for Presidents Day.
At issue is a request from for a secondary charter school complex for some 980 students on the 3.7-acre site.
Besides the development agreement, the City Council also approved a zone change from planned industrial development to commercial, which would allow a charter school; and a conditional use permit and approval of an environmental impact report (already approved by the Planning Commission).
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 include 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 grades.
Gray said Pacific Charter hopes to complete work in a year, beating the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has plans for a regional high school nearby at Alameda Street and Gage Avenue, which won’t be ready until 2012.
Charter schools are operated by private, nonprofit groups affiliated with the public school district and is considered a public school, with funds from the state instead of charging students tuition.
Currently under construction by Pacific is a charter grade school on a 1.6-acre site at 6724 Alameda St.
Under way there is the remodeling of a vacant 39,123-square-foot industrial building to house two elementary schools to be operated by Aspire Public Schools, based in Compton.
The same group operates Aspire Centennial College Preparatory Academy for some 400 students in grades 6 though 8 and Huntington Park College Ready High School for some 520 students in grades 9 though 12, both in a remodeled industrial building at Alameda Street and Saturn Avenue, directly south of the planned elementary school site.
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