Los Alamitos Council to Sue Own Schools Over Expansion

Los Alamitos City Council members emerged from a closed-door session with attorneys Wednesday night and said they will sue their own school district.

The dramatic move is a last-ditch attempt to try to halt plans by Los Alamitos Unified School District to build an $18-million complex for its award-winning arts program. The district failed to do adequate environmental impact reports, city officials said.

“Litigation is the only avenue the city has to require the district to conform with environmental quality review laws,” said Tom Allen, city attorney.

The controversy over a new complex for the 12-year-old Orange County High School of the Arts, now a “school within a school” at Los Alamitos High, heated up this month. After studying the project for years, school district trustees stepped up the schedule so they could meet a Jan. 25 deadline to apply for state school-construction funds. The $9-billion matching-fund program was approved in November under Proposition 1A.

But Councilman Ron Bates said Wednesday night, “We really need to step back and take a look at this project. We need a full environmental view. I think in their rush for money, the district has done a disservice to the community.”

Many people who live near the site on Bloomfield Street have objected. The area has an elementary and a middle school, and traffic is a nightmare, they said.

District officials said they were not required to conduct an environmental impact report.