Nation's Costliest High School Awaits RFP Fate
By John Millrany - April 12, 2001What would downtown Los Angeles have been without the remarkable influence of oil and gas as the city evolved in the early 20th century?
What will Los Angeles be if it fails to resolve the unfinished Belmont Learning Center fiasco that already has cost taxpayers over $175 million (and counting)?
Just another boondoggle? Small potatoes? Hey, they’ll think of something, some way to house those 4,000 students that have yet to enroll at the original Belmont High School site…?
These are not rhetorical questions to an untold number of victims who have been uprooted because they happen to have taken lodging on the timeworn, undulating city blocks where black gold once spurt like no one ever dreamed.
Many of today’s victims are now living in local hotels paid for by Red Cross vouchers. In just one example, the city Fire Department ordered a three-house complex vacated after methane gas rising from an underground oil well accumulated to a potentially explosive level. And county health inspectors are always on the prowl to source out telltale odors characteristic of befouled soils leaking in the neighborhood—affecting literally hundreds of residential properties.
Everyone seems to know that…anything could blow up at any given time.
The beleaguered Belmont landlord, Los Angeles Unified School District, seems like it wants to scream "uncle," and at least for the moment, is reaching out for private help. On April 9, the Board of Education issued a request for proposals (RFP). At stake: can the district get bailed out at a price private industry is willing to pay? And dare the district hope that someone will buy out the whole project?
Liability issues are unmistakably in play.
It was in January 2000 when the Board of Education decided to trash the nation’s costliest high school—one of Los Angeles’ oldest—after environmental tests at the site revealed dangerously high levels of sulfur dioxide and that pesky, explosive methane gas.
After the project stagnated for over a year, Superintendent Ray Romer advised the board to approve a three-prong process to look outside for options via the RFP process.
One proposal seeks bids that would allow a developer to lease the property from the district while it addresses mitigation of environmental hazards and builds out the incomplete Learning Center. This format is known as a turnkey development and—most significantly—would insure the district against liability.
Another option would capture proposals for either completing the project as originally planned or resizing the campus. In either case, developers would have the option of looking to private development of any unused portions of the site immediately northwest of the nation’s second largest city.
In both scenarios, there is the mandatory stipulation to mitigate environmental hazards and ensure the district against any future liability.
A third option would be to find a buyer to purchase the property outright, again with the proviso that the district is shielded against future environmental liability.
Thus, the RFP process has been launched, with Romer commenting:
"Once we receive the responses from the private sector and can review the options and their costs, the board can then determine what action it next wants to take in regards to the property."
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