Fellow Arts Supporter,
Please join us at the next EUSD Board of Trustees meeting
Tuesday December 7, 2010, 6:30pm
101 S. Rancho Santa Fe Road, Encinitas
The Downtown Encinitas Mainstreet Association has let the school board and its superintendent know that we are very interested in leasing the Pacific View School site for a cultural arts center. We intend to have 3-5 key speakers address the board at this meeting. You will not need to speak, but the most potent a message is a room packed with as many supporters as possible so that they realize just how enormous the community sentiment for this venture really is. You can also send each of the board a quick message of support.
Please keep in mind that any future use or project on the Pacific View site should have four guiding principles:
· Education including art and nutrition, and our children’s access to the site.
· Historic Preservation and adaptive reuse of the existing buildings.
· That it remain in a public use
· That it provide revenue to the EUSD and/or Encinitas Education Foundation for the benefit of our schools
The final decision is up the EUSD board of trustees. I urge you to write to them.
Bill Parker bill.parker@eusd.net
Carol Skiljan carol.skiljan@eusd.net
Catherine Regan cathy.regan@eusd.net
Emily R. Andrade emily.andrade@eusd.net
Gregg Sonken greggsonken@gmail.com
Marla Strich marla.strich@eusd.net
Maureen Muir maureen.muir@eusd.net
Hope to see you at the meeting and eventually at the “Pacific View Cultural Arts Center”!
Please forward this to as many interested people as possible.
Dody Crawford
Executive Director
I love the arts.... but that property near the ocean is way too valuable for an art venue.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that one.
Best we could hope for is a pocket park with a soccer field.
Spread the park space for family fun.
No need for a mega sports complex at Hall property.
I think we'd like to see an arts venue in places that happen to be valuable. Sticking it down some side road miles from our daily activities demonstrates that the activities are not integral to the town's daily culture.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is we could have two art centers down side roads away from where people are now found and people would still want an arts center downtown.
I don't know if PV is the the place, but I suspect Encinitas 101, or the El Camino Real corridor [under several conditions] or maybe... but doubtful, L101 corridor is the place for a arts hub.
I think it's condusive to an art center. That would be nothing new at Pacific View. It's where I and thousands of others took art for several years. A classmate (Tina Moreno) stopped by my shop last year. Her mother passed away, but she wanted me to have a drawing I did of Abraham Lincoln that she kept all these years. Pretty cool surprise. To me it looks more like a MAD magazine characature than Abe, but that figures. I'm a recovering MAD addict.
ReplyDeleteWe really need to pack this meeting. It will be our only chance!
ReplyDeleteMy vote is:
School
Park
Arts Center
Vacant
Anything but selling out to big developers who ONLY care about how they can densify the useage so that they can make as much money they can make.
This boils down to the public good vs special interest profits. It is imperative that the public demand that this asset be maintained for the long term use of the community. The will of the people must prevail, as the opportunity will not come again if this property is sold off for development. Save Pacifc View for all the people of Encinitas!
ReplyDeleteWhere's the funding going to come from? Taxes most of the supporters don't pay but from other working stiffs. If the people who want this Cultural Center would pony up the bucks they could have it. Its for sale. Oh yeah, there is a tree with free money on it just for them but not for the infrastructure maintenance or anything else.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong here,
ReplyDeleteWe must not forget the mission of the EUSD.
BTW, why can't a new learning center be put in at Pacific View?
Why don't they use some of that Prop P money (45 millon dollars) on this cultural center.
ReplyDeleteEUSD's motto is Children First. What better gift to children than a cultural arts center in Encinitas. This property is the perfect location. Let's elevate the importance of the arts, of arts education and build a cultural arts center for all generations.
ReplyDeleteArt. Ask for more.
KC,
ReplyDeleteDoes the board have 5 members or 7 members and what are each of their positions on this property?
Maybe, you should send out a questionaire to them, so we'll all know where they stand and can focus on a constructive strategy.
Why DEMA's Proposal to EUSD for a 5 Year Agreement is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteFirst, the family that gave that property to the district for a downtown Encinitas school NEVER dreamed that it would be sold to fund non-teaching operations: This property could have been sold at the top of the market for maybe $3 million dollars over four years ago; but EUSD Trustees have misplayed things; to the point where they did NOT get the usage of the property changed, and in their grasping for extra dollars by upgrading for developers, the time to sell is NOW long past and instead of holding onto it for 5 more years and allowing DEMA/Norby to deliver to them $200K per year and make a million dollars overall in 5 years for the district by allowing DEMA to manage the property (while it's value hopefully rises in value); the district is stubbornly considering suing the City over their failed rezoning request, rather than making a winning 5 year agreement with DEMA?
Today PV is worth, as is, $1 million, nine hundred thousand dollars.
Second: Inquire of Superintendent Baird: "Why not hold onto it for 5 years, accept an income stream from DEMA for $1 million over five years and then STILL own the property and hopefully, if necessary, THEN sell PV for over $2 million dollars or more?"
THAT is what a business, or well-run non-profit would do.
Yes, EUSD is NOT a business: perhaps that is 'WHY' they have allowed the opportunity of selling Pacific View at the top of the market(greed for increased R-15 zoning and multiplication of units per value) and NOW seek to sell it when it is worth 40% of what it was 4 years ago, when they had the chance.
Why throw good money after bad: meaning the over $200K invested in attempting to upgrade usage to 15 houses per acre for development that EUSD has spent on lawyers and specialists so far to increase usage to R-15?
And YES, a "Learning Center" would be nice at Pacific View.
By agreeing to a 5 year contract: the district gets have their cake: AND eat it too.
Communicating both the financial incentive and the cultural incentives for allowing DEMA to transform PV according to their proposal to EUSD.
Let's elevate the importance of Math. Make it a math center.
ReplyDeleteThe USA is following way behind the other nations in meaningful education. Without leading education, our economy will be dwarfed to others, our quality of life will be lower and people will be less likely to enjoy art. Just look at Mexico.
Let's make it a 21st century Cultural Art Center:
ReplyDeleteSTEAM:
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics
I'm with Richard Dreyfuss. Let's make it a civics center.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if these kids understood the Constitution. Their parents don't know the Constitution from constipation.
Delolax to the rescue. Kind of like the Bill of Rights - keeps s**t flowing smoothly.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone notifying people of the upcoming school board meeting other then this blog (e.g. flyer, email, etc.)?
ReplyDeleteWe need a good turnout at the school board meeting!
Good luck. EUSD says they don't need the property, and they have done the demographic math. Given their mandate, they MUST get the most money possible and bring those resources to meet educational objectives, like raising test scores. (you may not like this worldview, but it's plainspoken reality.
ReplyDeleteThe only way to make this an arts center (a noble goal) is to find a benefactor and buy the property at market price. the benefactor could be private, public, or a partnership of the two.
The market price of the property is going to be difficult to assess. EUSD believes that they will win rezoning on appeal, and they may be right. If that's their belief, then they logically believe the property is underpriced at the current zoning, and will never accept a price based on current zoning. The tricky part is pricing risk, and discounting the high density value of the property by that risk. If you want to get serious about buying the property, the first step is understanding how much money you would need to get from benefactors. If there is a serious person out there, hire a specialist to assess how likely EUSD is to win their appeal, and how long it would take. Use a simple risk discounting, and Time value of money calculation to figure out a fair price. Then you will have a target for benefactors.
Any other approach is just navel gazing.
Wasn't there some public act that allows a municipality to purchase at discounted rates anyway? One must research the tenants of this act to determine what "discount" applies. Maybe Paul Ecke III will buy it for Encinitas??
ReplyDeleteTo Encinitas Dad:
ReplyDeleteWhat appeal by the EUSD? A Planning Commission decision can be appealed to the City Council, but a City Council decision is final and cannot be appealed. The only option the EUSD has is to sue the city. That is unlikely for both political and legal reasons. Politically there are too many tacit connections between school board members and city council members. Legally there is not a strong case for the district to make against the city. Remember the district leased the PV property to the city for several years at $1 per year and dilly dallied too long.
Every board and council has fiduciary responsibilities. Courts gave them broad leeway to make "mistakes." The property doesn't have to be sold. It would not be hard for the district to make a deal with an interested party. It's only a matter of political will.
I'd like to see a small Charter High School for the arts. Something like the Museum Schools in downtown San Diego or like High Tech High.
ReplyDeleteMaybe partnered with Lux?
The proposal for Pacific View is not just about art. That is why Cultural is in the title. This means that it is not exclusive to artists....the property could be used for many expressions of the culture of our area. Farmers Market, music venue, drama venue, galleries, teaching space, memorial garden and artisan market are only a few of the ideas for this location. For the person who keeps whining about spendinghh is tax dollars..the people who are supporting this project are not asking the city for the money. He should be whining about the cost of the Hall Property Sports Park. This is a project that is projected to cost $40 million or more dollars and that is just for the land purchase and the first phase.
ReplyDeleteThis park will earn no revenue and is stated to provide for the kids. The real benefit is to the sports groups that charge thesee kids to be on the teams.
Put these two projects side by side and a Cultural Art Center at Pacific wins hands down as the least expensive and providing the most benefits to the whole community of Encinitas.
I'm fine with it being an artists' colony, but they must pay full market rent. I don't like it when some people get better treatment than others.
ReplyDeleteI say a park. A nice, big grass area.
The previous poster says he wants people to pay market rent for the art Center and says a better use would be a park......which pay what????? We already have a multi million sports PARK in the works and they are not going to have to pay anything to use it even though the sports groups make the kids play to be on a team. Many of the organizations thinking of renting space in the Art Center are 501(c)3 non profits with a mandate for education. Money for "market rent" only takes away from the monies they can spend on community programs. Many of these groups have a long history of community service.
ReplyDeleteIf the school district was going to re-condition this property to the level that would qualify for "market rent" then that might be a consideration. However, the school district is not going to spend a dime to do that.
ReplyDeleteThat will come from the groups who has the lease and the people who rent the space. It will require a lot of money and elbow grease to do this and after that is done if they get a good lease rate.....we should be saying thank you not complaining.