Belmont Stumbling Blocks

More than six months after a majority of the Los Angeles School Board reversed course and gave Supt. Roy Romer the go-ahead to salvage or sell the Belmont Learning Complex site, the unfinished high school still molders untouched.

There’s always something.

Potential bidders can’t get the detailed plans for the project because of a money dispute between the original developer, Temple Beaudry Partners, and the architectural firms involved. Arbitrators may solve this dispute by week’s end. If so, the plans should be available by the end of May, and the 90-day clock for bids can start ticking.

At the current disappointing pace, parents and students will be lucky if they know by the end of September whether any developers want to take a shot at cleaning up the contamination left by old oil wells, mitigating the environmental hazards that were ignored prior to construction and finishing the school--of course, in a reasonable amount of time and for a cost the school district can afford.

Nearly $200 million has already been spent on the project, and most of that money came from the Los Angeles Unified School District’s general fund. School board members are not likely to want to spend much more on the controversial project, especially as California’s legislative analyst warns of a falloff of anticipated revenue. Sacramento’s generosity to public education may decline.

If no developer makes a reasonable bid to complete Belmont, the district unfortunately won’t be able to just sell it off to the highest bidder and use the money for other schools.

The state education code requires school districts that are disposing of property to offer it first for local parks and recreational use, then to state colleges and universities, other public agencies, governments or nonprofit groups. Only after no deal can be made with them can the district sell it outright. However, no park or school agency is likely to touch this deeply troubled site. The process should be made as swift as possible.

The criminal investigation of Belmont’s construction, initiated by Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, also should be speeded up. His predecessor, Gil Garcetti, should have started a probe long ago, but it is now in Cooley’s hands.

While his office has declared the project a crime scene, the prosecutor insists that potential bidders will have access.

Good. The last thing Belmont needs is another stumbling block.