With one major hurdle cleared, the City of Morro Bay is beginning its investigation to determine whether it should follow through with buying a long-closed elementary school.
Closed since 2001, Morro Elementary was established in the early 1930s and is the original school for Morro Bay.
But dropping enrollment and a tight budget forced the San Luis Coastal Unified School District to close Morro, Sunnyside Elementary in Los Osos, and Pacheco School in San Luis Obispo.
The District had rented out portions of all three schools to keep some revenue flowing into the District until recently, when the School Board decided to surplus Sunnyside and Morro. (Pacheco was moved across town to another campus and the old Grand Avenue campus has been leased by San Luis Obispo Classical Academy and shared with Teach Elementary. The Academy is slated to move to a new campus in June when its lease expires.)
For the past nearly two years, the City, at the urging of residents, has been negotiating with the District to purchase Morro for community needs and just last month the two agencies reached a purchase agreement.
The City put $500,000 down and agreed to pay an additional $4.8 million ($5.3 million total) for the 12-acre property.
As part of the agreement, the City is conducting a “due diligence” study to inspect all aspects of the property, from environmental concerns (is there asbestos?) to structural condition of the buildings and more.
Another part of that due diligence was a City pledge to conduct a series of public meetings to discuss potential reuses for the property, which sits near the center of the community, adjacent to the Community Center.
The first of the meetings has been set for 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, April 29 at the Morro Bay Vet’s Hall, 209 Surf St.
The due diligence study is described as “a thorough review of the site and evaluate its potential long term public benefit to the community,” reads a notice of the upcoming meeting.
The work will entail “reviewing site conditions, assessing any environmental or facility related issues, examining space needs and possible future civic uses. The due diligence process will help inform the City Council and community before a recommendation is given to the City Council by the city manager on the decision to complete the purchase,” the notice said.
City Manager John Craig said, “The due diligence period is an important opportunity for the City to carefully evaluate the property and to hear directly from the community. We want residents to understand the process, ask questions and share their ideas about how this site could serve Morro Bay in the future.”
On the 29th, the City’s team will give an overview of the purchase process, explain the diligence work already underway, and give the public the chance to ask questions and to comment.
One question, which Estero Bay News has asked but the City has yet to answer, is where is the City getting the $4.8 million to complete the purchase and that is due in full when escrow closes in October?
In Los Osos the community is slated to vote in June on a property tax assessment to raise the money needed to purchase Sunnyside School.
If that vote, which was called for through a citizen’s petition drive and is being done for the Community Services District, gets over 50% approval, it will be enacted and the school purchased for the town’s use.
If it doesn’t succeed, the purchase is likely to fall through. That would leave the School District free to offer the old school to private developers, who would still be required to build affordable housing under State Law.
A citizens group in Morro Bay had already conducted one study looking at potential reuse for the old campus.
The Friends of Morro Elementary’s study concluded that the City could move City Hall to the campus, after extensive remodeling, lease out some of the classrooms to educational programs, use the extensive grassy field for the City’s youth sports programs, and even have room enough left over to build a sizable, affordable housing project.
The campus is comprised of a mash up of buildings, some built back in the 1930s, some in the 60s and one in the 1990s. The School District had determined the school needed a million dollars in upgrades to be usable again. The Friends group disputes that figure and the City’s diligence study ought to give a clearer picture of the old school’s true condition.
