Newport Beach City Council extends agreement with Pacifica Christian High School for city-owned land use
Pacifica Christian High School will be allowed to continue the free use of a 12,700-square-foot city parcel for another 10 years, after the Newport Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend an existing agreement.
According to a staff report, the city previously owned a roughly 1-acre site at 1499 Monrovia Avenue, where the school operates. The site included a 16,550-square-foot office building and was sold by the city in 2014 for $5.8 million to basketball giant Kobe Bryant for the headquarters of Kobe Inc.
That sale excluded, however, the parcel in question Tuesday night because the city expected to extend 15th Street into Banning Ranch, said community development director Seimone Jurjis. A licensing agreement was set up that allowed Kobe Inc. to use the 12,700-square-foot parcel as it had been originally developed until February of this year.
Jurjis said Tuesday night this was because the city was not planning any capital investment programs for the site and activity with Banning Ranch had stagnated. The site was sold to Pacifica Christian High School in 2017 and the licensing agreement was reassigned to the school.
“That license agreement now is expired,” said Jurjis. “The city staff, we have looked at the parcel and there is a council policy about charging fair market value. Since we’re going to issue a new license agreement to the Pacifica team, we were looking at our council policy, which says fair market value.”
The fair market rental value for the property is $28,665 annually, but Pacifica officials sought to continue using the parcel at no cost, as allowed in the original licensing agreement with Kobe Inc.
Real property administrator Lauren Whitlinger said the city currently has no fee or $1 a year agreements for use of city-owned property with organizations like the Back Bay Science Center, the Balboa Angling Club, Boys & Girls Club, Girl Scouts of Orange County and Newport Harbor Lawn Bowling.
Council members discussed whether or not to extend the lease by an additional 10 years in accordance with staff’s recommendation or if they should charge the private school fair market value for the lot’s use. Councilwoman Joy Brenner, concerned about the appearance of council bias, said she wanted some uniform reason or policy to explain the rationale as to why no fee or low cost agreements were offered.
“I personally love Pacifica Christian High School, but I don’t want us to be accused of giving good deals to some people and not good deals to others,” said Brenner.
Jurjis said such a policy already exists, referencing the policy that requires city staff to charge fair market value, but she added that such policies can be waived by council action.
Councilman Brad Avery said he didn’t want to hold nonprofit organizations’ “feet to the fire for some exorbitant rate, but I would just feel better about it with all public land that if a private organization — whether it’s a nonprofit or a profit — is using that land, they should be paying something for it.
“Out of all those properties, there should be some revenue to the city for it. We provide services to that parcel. All the rest of it. But ... I understand how it helps Pacifica Christian here and so as a council member I would look for a way to make that happen, but I would like to see some remuneration back to the city.”
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