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School district selling surplus property at Phelan School
Moreland ready to sell 1.6 unused acres
By Steven Raphael
Moreland School District is preparing to sell 1.6 acres of surplus land at Phelan School.
The district has reached an agreement with Oakwood Apartments, a neighboring complex, to sell the land for $1.9 million, according to Tom Shannon, the district's real estate consultant.
Shannon said that Oakwood, which wants the land for an expansion project, now has until December to get city approval for the plan. After that, their option to buy the land will expire.
If the deal goes through, Superintendent Jim Ritchie said, the Phelan campus will still have about eight acres, which is average for schools of its size. He said the sale won't affect the school because the land isn't being used for anything.
"It's just sitting there growing weeds," he said.
The $1.9 million will be used to fund a new media center at the school, which houses the Moreland Discovery School.
Ritchie says the benefits outweigh the drawback of giving up district land.
"People generally are not happy with the sale of school property and, generally, we aren't either," he said. "But, [the land] is not usable to us and we do have the responsibility of maintaining it."
The district held two community meetings before deciding to sell the land. They received no negative comments, Shannon said.
The recommendation to sell the property came from a committee composed of community members. They found that the land behind Phelan not being used and probably wouldn't be in the future.
The cost of developing it would override any value that might be obtained from it, Ritchie said. The land is only useful to Oakwood Apartments because they own the neighboring lot. However, if the deal with Oakwood is not completed, Ritchie does not anticipate selling the land to anyone else.
"I don't think there's anyone else that would be able to use [the land] because of where it is located," he said.
The surplus land is in between Phelan and Oakwood and, since it is completely undeveloped, there is no access to it except through the school or the apartment complex.
Phelan School will be the third Moreland school to sell off excess property. Parts of El Quito and Bucknell Middle schools were sold two years ago.
"It hasn't impacted us at all," Ritchie said.
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Campbell, California
