Local Citizens Debate Possible Lease of PUSD Land To Costco.
The 27 acre plot of land known as the “Black Mountain Ranch site” is slated to be leased to Costco.
The site is located at the corner of Camino del Sur and Carmel Valley Road and owned by Poway Unified School District, and was declared a “surplus” plot of land by a committee of local residents. This conclusion is in stark contrast to the site’s original purpose of being used to build a middle school. The new deal with Costco could potentially provide an annual source of income for the district over the next 40 to 60 years. However, many members of the community are opposed to the new development plans.
Protect Our Community Now, a local non-profit organization, was recently founded by a group of concerned residents, families, and friends in order to delay the negotiations and ensure that the district community has a voice in the process. According to the company website, a lot has changed in the community since the land was last assessed. POCN hopes PUSD will reevaluate the land and choose to build a new middle school, which would reduce the growing class sizes of PUSD schools. One anonymous resident proposed the idea of a career-specific teaching site where students from the three nearby high schools: Del Norte, Westview, and Mt. Carmel, could receive direct instruction for professions.
Additionally, POCN members feel that the district did not comply with the expected level of transparency about the land and failed to provide sufficient notice to the community before the negotiations began. POCN spokespersons argue that, if a Costco warehouse was built on the site, the resulting heavy traffic and potential car accidents would negatively impact the daily commutes of residents in the area.
POCN members also argue that, if a Costco is built on the site, noise and light pollution may harm local wildlife.
Once negotiations with Costco conclude on November 9th, it will be next to impossible to make any further changes because the process will be monitored by the City of San Diego.
“Only those in the district who live in the City of San Diego will have a voice, which leaves approximately 40% of the district disenfranchised from the process. As for the remaining 60% who are eligible to vote when this gets onto a City ballot, their voices will be drowned out as they make up only 11% of the population of the City of San Diego,” a spokesperson from POCN told CBS 8.
For this reason, the group feels they need to act now in order to make sure that all of the community’s concerns are addressed.
However, leasing the land to a big company like Costco could bring in revenue that would help support the schools that the district already has. For example, one district board proposal estimates that the annual rent payments from Costco would bring in as much as $38 million in profits after 60 years. These earnings could be put towards acquiring more equipment, like Chromebooks or docu-cams that students or teachers require to continue improving the virtual education experience.
Ultimately, the outcome of this decision will have a significant impact on the PUSD community. Whichever route PUSD decides to move forward with, their decision will have a lasting effect on trust between the district and the community.
