In Whittier, a controversy reminiscent of the Belmont Learning Complex battle is playing out as a . . .

A site for a proposed elementary school has Whittier residents and officials debating an increasingly common public policy question: Is it safe to build a new school here?

Residents are suing the Whittier City School District to block construction of a $16-million campus in a controversy expected to last well beyond the fall semester, which begins Tuesday.

They have many of the same fears that prompted abandonment of the Belmont Learning Complex in downtown Los Angeles, and they accuse school officials of neglecting potential environmental hazards near the site--in this case, a former engine dismantling yard and several other automotive businesses. The new school will also require condemnation of as many as 48 homes.

School district officials, facing threats of a recall over the project, said they will give the environmental concerns a second look, adding, however, that they believe them to be overblown. They say the site is safe and the school is badly needed.

“The decision of the site has been made,” said school district attorney Eric Bathen. “We want to work with the city. But this is a district decision.”

The question of where to build new schools is bound to be asked more frequently in urban communities with growing enrollment. Roughly 450 students in the northern part of the Whittier district have to ride buses to campuses across town. Enrollment in the K-8 district has increased by 15% since 1994, to 7,200 students.

The Whittier district is expected to grow by 500 students in the next 10 years. The district’s 13 schools were designed to accommodate 4,700 students, district officials said, requiring the addition of 90 portable classrooms in the last five years.

“I have never in my life had a question before me that I was even remotely part of deciding that was as significant as this one,” said one Whittier school board member, John Peel.

In choosing where to build an elementary school, Peel said, he and board colleagues rejected several other sites that seemed to have environmental hazards.

“We knew regulations from the state were more focused because of things at Belmont,” he said, referring to the abandoned effort by the Los Angeles Unified School District to build a $200-million high school on top of an oil field.

Whittier city officials and many residents, including those who stand to lose homes if the school is built, contend the district was negligent in its study--or at least sloppy.

The word “Belmont” has been mentioned frequently during meetings this year over the environmental assessment performed by the district.

Marc Blodgett, an environmental consultant for the city, said the neighborhood had “a lot of industrial uses there that may have caused contamination.” The proposed site runs along the 7200 block of Union Street, abutting the district’s South Whittier Avenue headquarters, where an elementary school operated during the early 1900s.

“It is our opinion that [the district] did not conduct an extensive enough review,” he said, such as testing the soil for toxicity.

City planner Mike Burnham added: “It’s possible that a good analysis might say that this is not a good site for schoolchildren.”

Starting Tuesday, Elsa Medina’s 6-year-old son, Johnny, and 8-year-old daughter, Angelus, will ride buses to two schools across town. Medina said she would like to volunteer in their classes and attend more parent meetings.

However, she said, with no car, a 14-month-old baby in tow and a 90-minute bus trip to either school--including two transfers--that seems impossible.

“It would be really nice to have a school nearby,” Medina said. “My children could walk home like other kids. And the parents here would be able to get more involved.”

Few in Whittier argue that a new school isn’t needed.

Voters overwhelmingly approved a $30-million school construction bond issue in March. Opponents said they are simply unhappy with the way school officials picked this site. The lawsuit against the district seeks to have the school site decision overturned on the grounds that the board violated state open meeting laws.

The board members, said Whittier Mayor Allan Zolnekoff, “haven’t done their homework.”

He and other city officials say the district rushed its environmental assessment to qualify for state Proposition 1A school construction funds. The district is eligible for $8.5 million from the account.

In their haste, opponents charge, school officials also neglected to give an early warning to residents that their homes are in danger of being condemned, said Carolyn Blaisdell. She is among a group of residents who hope to persuade the city to protect the targeted homes on Union Street by declaring the neighborhood a historical preservation site.

The working class area is filled with quaint wood-paneled homes built during the 1920s and 1930s.

Blaisdell suggested the district consider a site down the road, on top of a gas company parking lot with underground storage tanks. “I have no idea about hazardous materials and stuff, but I don’t think it would be a problem unless those tanks are leaking,” she said.

A public meeting with school district and city officials is planned for Sept. 16.