Moorpark Sues to Get Old School Site for Park

In an attempt to break deadlocked negotiations over the fate of the old Memorial Union High School campus, the city of Moorpark has filed suit against the Moorpark Unified School District.

City officials said the intent of the suit, which was filed Monday in Ventura Superior Court, is to force the district to sell eight acres of the 70-acre property to the city for a park.

School district officials say they support the idea of using the parcel for a park, but do not want to relinquish the land until the city agrees to rezone the rest of the property to permit intensive residential or commercial development that would generate income to build schools.

In the lawsuit, however, city officials contend that under the state Education Code, they can purchase the land without agreeing to any other conditions.

Judge’s Ruling Asked

The lawsuit asks a judge to rule whether the school district is bound by the Naylor Act, a provision of the Education Code that enables a city to purchase 30% of a school district’s surplus land at 25% of market value. The suit also asks the judge to determine the price the city should pay for the land.

“We are asking the court to decide if are we entitled to that site,” Councilman Bernardo Perez said.

School officials, however, claim that the district is exempt from the act and does not have to give up the land until the city meets their terms.

“Our position has been we want you to have a park; we want to be providing a park, but there has to be something in it for us,” said school board member Tom Baldwin. “We wanted to make a package deal. If they have what they want, what inducement do they have to give us what we want?”

Site Not Rezoned

So far, the city has been unwilling to rezone the property because of citizen opposition to growth in the downtown area.

Moorpark Mayor Eloise Brown said City Council members believed that a lawsuit was the only way to resolve the dispute, which has been going on for nearly a year. The high school opened its new campus in September.

“It’s a rational, adult way to have a third party make a determination on an issue we have been unable to settle,” she said.

But Baldwin said the lawsuit will hurt students by wasting money that should be used for education.

“It will cost $10,000 to $15,000 to fight this, and that is money that I can’t use to teach Johnny to read and little Sally how to do her math facts,” he said. “The children are going to suffer. It’s Moorpark hurting Moorpark’s children, and that doesn’t make sense at all.”