Le Bard offer rejected

The Huntington Beach City School District has rejected an offer from the city to sell its closed Le Bard Elementary School site in exchange for $7 million and a piece of land next to the AES power plant, saying the industrial facilities in the area made the land too hazardous for district use.

“As much as we hope that a purchase of the Le Bard property by the city will be achieved and the little league playing fields and open space preserved, potential cleanup costs for the property offered by the city and concerns for the well-being of our employees who would have worked there make us unwilling to accept this particular offer,” said the board’s president, Celia Jaffe.

The City Council voted unanimously in June to approve the outlines of the deal, which would use a $4.5 million piece of “tank farm” land next to the power plant as a bargaining chip to help buy the school. Le Bard Elementary School’s grounds are used by several youth programs including the Seaview Little League, and local residents have rallied in the last year to demand the playing fields be preserved.

But that doesn’t mean there’s no deal possible, district officials said. The district didn’t give up on the idea of any deal, according to a letter it sent to the city.

“We feel confident that a mutually beneficial solution can be reached and look forward to continued constructive negotiations,” Supt. Roberta DeLuca wrote to the city in late June.

But Councilman Keith Bohr said he wasn’t entirely sure what the district was looking for next, as the letter hadn’t gone into a specific counteroffer, and a straight cash offer for the current appraised value — more than $11 million — isn’t quite what he’s hoping for.

“We’re happy to keep negotiating, but they almost need to counter,” he said. “We just don’t have any other land like that. I’m more than happy to sit down and keep negotiating as long as it’s in good faith on both sides.”

On the upside, Bohr said, the city doesn’t have to rush a deal.

“We’re going to keep it open space,” he said.

“The fields are staying open in the meantime. There’s no strong time pressure from our standpoint.”

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at michael.alexander@latimes. com.