A LOOK AHEAD * Questions of public responsibility and privacy rights clash in an exclusive Orange County neighborhood as the . . . : Gated Community Fights School Plan

COTO de CAZA —  The outside world could come charging through the security gates of Coto de Caza with 20 modular classrooms for a new public school that may open as early as next year.

But the preliminary plans to install the newest campus in the Capistrano Unified School District have drawn attacks both from residents, who say it would undermine the privacy and security of their secluded foothill enclave, and outsiders who say that putting a public school there could be illegal.

If approved, the 400-student campus could be the first in the state to be constructed inside a gated community.

“I’m flabbergasted,” said Edward Blakely, a USC professor of urban planning who co-authored a book on gated communities. “This would violate civil rights and constitutional provisions.”

The school proposal is dividing residents in this community east of Mission Viejo. Some parents helped broker the land deal to get the campus. But other residents predict that a public school would allow almost anybody into the community, and could eventually force removal of the gates.

“No one can guarantee us that someone couldn’t sue and the gates won’t come down,” said Karen Rose, a nine-year Coto resident. “This is a huge, huge issue and nobody did their homework.”

The debate will culminate in a March 3 communitywide vote to decide if the school goes forward.

In a petition opposing the school sent to other Coto residents, Bob and Le Ann Ricks wrote: “The fact is, there is no legal precedent for this matter. . . . What if a court orders that the gates be taken down? What then will distinguish Coto de Caza from any of the surrounding areas?”

As of Friday, three people had said they want the school built and 106 don’t. Another 120 residents were undecided.

Homeowners on both sides of the debate, as well as school officials, will spend the next three months discussing the heart of the conflict: Is a public school equally accessible to all taxpayers if it is fenced in by private security gates?

“Americans are blurring the lines between private and public,” said Andrew Stark, an associate professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto, who has written extensively on gated communities.

“This seems to me to be a bold attempt at the local level to try to cross the line between public and private rights,” Stark said.

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Similar concerns have been raised elsewhere in California, considered the hub of walled neighborhoods.

* Hidden Hills, an incorporated, gated city in the west San Fernando Valley, moved its City Hall just outside its gates to allow free access to the building.

* Fences surrounding the Whitley Heights subdivision in Hollywood were torn down in 1994 after a Superior Court judge ruled that the gates barricaded public streets and violated state vehicle codes. That decision stated that a city cannot place devices that “deny or restrict the access of certain members of the public, while permitting others unrestricted access.”

* In the Silver Creek Country Club near San Jose, a public elementary school was constructed just outside of the gates to avoid any legal challenges. The local developer, Shea Homes, donated land to the San Jose Unified School District for the new campus.

“We didn’t even consider building a public school in our community,” said Joanne Anderson, the vice president of sales and marketing for Shea Homes. “That wouldn’t be right.”

Capistrano Unified officials contend that the Coto project, which would mostly serve students inside the gated community, is legal.

“You can’t have a public school becoming a part of a community exclusively for the use of a few people,” Supt. James A. Fleming said. He said that the district’s lease allows any member of the public who wants access to the school to simply tell the gate guards that they are headed to the campus.

The proposed lease permits access only to the school community--students, parents, school district employees and elected officials--during school hours, according to a draft obtained by The Times.

Fleming said the district’s legal counsel has assured him that the wording would allow anyone with business at the school to get in.

An estimated 35,000 guest passes per month are distributed to non-Coto residents to drive past the gates of this community of 10,000 residents. Besides construction workers, maids and gardeners, visitors to Coto’s restaurant and two golf courses use the passes.

Parents of students who attend the private elementary campus in Coto, Merryhill School, have the same access cards that are distributed to residents. And anyone wanting to visit the fire station is guaranteed admittance, no questions asked; its meeting room is rented out to nonresidents on a regular basis.

Coto children attend Wagon Wheel Elementary School, which opened in September 1997 with at least 100 more children than planned. The school is located just outside the gates. This year, 24 portable classrooms sit on the 13-acre site; there are two more temporary classrooms than permanent ones, said Nancy Lamperis, the school’s office manager. Enrollment now surpasses 1,000 students.

“We are just asking for a desk, a teacher and a school for every child--things we took for granted as children,” said Jill Harmon, whose 7-year-old daughter attends Wagon Wheel. Her daughter’s class had no permanent room last year so the children sat on the floor some mornings until school administrators found space for them in another classroom.

Harmon and a group of parents soon began meeting to discuss ways to ease the overcrowding. They talked to school officials, board members of the Coto homeowners association, the CZ Master Assn., and Lennar Homes, a Mission Viejo firm that has development rights on the last 1,000 acres in Coto.

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They finalized a deal in May: The homeowners association swapped 2 1/2 acres of land set aside for open space on Coto de Caza and Vista del Verde drives with an 8-acre parcel owned by Lennar Homes.

The association then planned to lease the property for $1 a year to the school district for 20 years, with two five-year renewals. The lease has not been signed yet because of the controversy. Lennar Homes also will spend an estimated $500,000 on parking and ball fields at the site. If the school is not built, the homeowners association keeps the property but the developer will not increase parking or build athletic fields.

Foes of the project said they fear the school proposal threatens the seclusion that allows them to roam the 5,000-acre community without qualms.

“This is a private community and people are concerned about the gates,” homeowner Vicki Bush said. “We ought to keep public things public and private things private. There is a place for schools and there is a place for communities, and let’s keep them separate.”

School backers said the campus would be relocated immediately if there was ever any threat that the gates would come down.

“This was literally the last open space for a school,” said John Zarian, a parent of three and the association president. “We have to do something about the school crisis.”