DISTRICT GOT RAW DEAL, REPORT SAYS; WOODRIDGE DEVELOPMENT FEE CALLED TOO LOW.

Byline: Sonia Giordani Daily News Staff Writer

In a last-ditch effort to derail the Woodridge project, opponents are pointing to a new study they say shows that school officials underestimated the amount of money it will take to accommodate additional students in a district already operating at more than 95 percent capacity.

Specifically, the Conejo Valley Unified School District is being criticized for negotiating a $2.63 per square foot fee the developer agreed to pay. According to the report, the district assumes an estimated cost of $2.78 per square foot of residential development to meet the average construction cost of $4,996.69 per residential household.

``Development and growth is inevitable to some degree. But let's let the developers pay to mitigate the impacts on schools instead of the people who already live here,'' said Debbie Gregory, a Thousand Oaks resident who asked for the report last week.

``How can the district suggest that the impacts have been mitigated when this report suggests something different. And this is their own report,'' she said.

The report was commissioned by the district and completed by Community Systems Associates of Tustin in May.

On the eve of this year's development allocation hearing that could award the final 164 allotments Woodridge needs to break ground on its 252-home project, Gregory has circulated the document to City Council members and other residents and raised questions about the school district's consistent testimony that it could support students from the new development.

But Conejo school board President Dolores Didio said she and the district staff stand by the agreement they worked out with Woodridge developer Michael Rosenfeld last July.

``We have the room. If this group of opponents wants to stop the project because they think we won't be able to accommodate the school children, they are incorrect,'' said Didio.

The $2.63 the school district negotiated to get from the developer per square foot in a separate agreement exceeds the maximum of $1.93 the state otherwise would have allowed without the contract.

``The bottom line is we will be collecting about $1,000 per household more than the average construction cost,'' she said.

According to a district question-and-answer sheet issued in response to Gregory's concerns, the cost of constructing school facilities to accommodate future Woodridge students is $5,931 per unit. By the agreement the district worked out with Woodridge, the developer fees will raise $6,930 - or $999 of surplus per household.

Rosenfeld said the project secured the district's support as well as the city's approval based on its merits and the benefits it offers the community.

The $2.63 fee represents the highest the district has ever collected from a developer, and the 624-acre area promised by Woodridge to the city in open space is one of the largest offered by a developer.

But environmental advocates and school district critics alike maintain that the Woodridge developer fees will not pay the full price the school district will incur to build new classrooms and other school facilities.

Save Open Space attorney Rosemary Woodlock, who has fought to revisit the environmental impact report since it was passed in October, said the new report merits review if only to reassess the impact on schools. And Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said she will push for a supplemental environmental report.

``This is new information and it appears the council based its votes on a faulty EIR,'' said Zeanah, who with Councilwoman Linda Parks opposed granting Woodridge the first 88 allotments it requested and got in May. ``I think it is our moral, if not our legal, duty to do a supplemental EIR.''

But district officials maintain that their figures are solid and said the report does not suggest that the more than $1.8 million Woodridge will pay in developer fees will be insufficient.

They note, for instance, that the $2.78 figure the report suggests would apply for homes of 1,700 square feet. But with Woodridge homes guaranteed to be between 2,500 and 3,500 square feet, the per-square-foot figure can be reduced and still meet the district's construction costs.

``This was a good deal for the school district that fully mitigates the affects of the development,'' said Gary Mortimer, assistant superintendent of business services for the Conejo district. ``Before we agreed to support the development, we did an analysis of our schools' capacities and they showed we could accommodate the additional students projected.''

One way the district accommodated that was by redrawing school boundaries, which shifted hundreds of students from Ladera Elementary School to the new Lang Ranch Elementary scheduled to open in September.

Facilities director Sean Corrigan said the three schools that future Woodridge students would attend - Ladera, Los Cerritos Elementary and Thousand Oaks High - will each open under capacity this fall.

Councilwoman Judy Lazar said the district officials' word is enough for her to continue supporting the project.

``Who else are we supposed to believe? If the district isn't capable of forecasting their enrollment and capacities, I don't know why someone else would be in a better position to,'' she said.