Board sets future in motion for Westmoreland school site.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

The Eugene School Board agreed on Wednesday to take the first steps in a lengthy process to demolish Westmoreland Elementary School and sell the nine-acre site.

The school will close in 2004 after the completion of a new elementary school on the Ida Patterson Elementary School property about a mile to the northeast. The Westmoreland site, at City View and West 18th Avenue, is one of a half-dozen district-owned parcels deemed "surplus" in a report done by real estate consultant Hugh Prichard last year.

At a neighborhood meeting in April, area residents told district officials that the school, with its playground, soccer field and track, doubles as a community park. They said they'd like to see the land used for a park, or a combination of green space and neighborhood-friendly commercial or retail development - not, they said, for more multifamily housing.

However, the city says the area has enough parks already and, with scarce funds for green space, is not interested in developing that site for a park, assistant city manager Jim Carlson wrote in a memo to the district.

The city would like to acquire three to five acres, though, to "bank" for future low-income housing, he said.

With Wednesday's board action on Westmoreland, the district will make a request for a zone change from public lands to medium-density residential. Neighbors will be notified in early July, and a public hearing will be held in late August. The board is scheduled to take action on the plan to sell in September.

The school board on Wednesday also received Prichard's recommendation on the Santa Clara Elementary property on River Road. The city may be interested in acquiring some of that parcel for park land, Carlson said, as well as for future low-income housing.

Prichard recommends that the district seek a zone change for Santa Clara from public lands to mixed use of commercial, general office and/or medium-density residential, and market the site for sale.

A portion of the 7.2-acre site is subject to a 1921 deed restriction by the Santa Clara Grange, which required that the property be used for school purposes only. The grange has agreed to lift the restriction so long as it can participate in and receive proceeds from the sale.

The board will schedule a Santa Clara neighborhood meeting sometime in September to discuss the site's future uses, spokeswoman Barb Bellamy said.

Other closed schools that have been listed as surplus include Laurel Hill, Whiteaker, Dunn and Bailey Hill.

Willakenzie, which will close after a new school is built at the Washington Elementary site in 2004, is also on the list. Laurel Hill is already up for sale.

Because of the benefits of keeping the school properties in public use, Prichard said he'll continue to first gauge interest from the city before making specific recommendations.

"People are obviously used to the open space, so we do that with all of them," he said.