Editorial: Neighbors’ plan for Santa Venetia property needs to be heard

Santa Venetia residents are joining forces in an effort to purchase the long-forlorn MacPhail Elementary School property.

The San Rafael City Schools district is putting the property up for sale and neighboring residents would rather it be turned into a community center than a site for condominiums.

These days, with Sacramento’s push to force communities to build more housing, it is a looming unknown regarding how many units and how many stories the 10-acre site near the end of the Point San Pedro Peninsula would accommodate.

Many neighbors don’t want to find out and are rallying to save the long-vacant and weathered property from a developer’s hands. They are trying to raise $2 million to submit a bid of $6 million by the district’s Jan. 23 deadline.

The school that once served the neighborhood was closed in the 1970s, a time when many campuses across the county were closed due to steep declines in enrollment. The property was turned into a campus for artisans. The district actually sold the property in 1993, but the buyer defaulted and it has been boarded up ever since.

It has been shuttered for more than a decade and a victim of years of benign neglect.

But the district needs the cash.

In a sense, the community is trying to retain a piece of property it bought long ago. The price the district sets for the neighborhood’s acquisition should reflect that initial investment.

Also, Santa Venetia has other needs, such as coming up with a lasting solution to its flood levee system.

The recent king tides were a not-so-subtle reminder of the work that’s needed to protect the neighborhood from the kind of widespread flooding and damage it saw in the 1980s.

The neighborhood was built on filled marshland and has slowly subsided. Meanwhile the earth-and-timber levees built in the 1980s to protect it are vulnerable, especially as global warming pushes tides higher.

If Santa Venetia can rally the support it needs to acquire the school property and turn it into a community center, it also needs to make sure that the short- and long-term cost of that initiative doesn’t come at the cost of taxpayer support for measures long needed to bolster flood protection for the area.

Leaders of the push to acquire the old school say possible plans for the property could include restoring the playfield for a softball diamond, dog park or informal recreation. The buildings could be repaired for artist studios, community gatherings, youth and senior programs, a community garden and other classes or offerings.

Leaders of the effort are also talking about the possibility of creating a small museum, including an interpretive program focusing on the Coast Miwok, who lived in the area for centuries.

The property’s access to nearby open space and viewshed would also be preserved.

It would be an ambitious undertaking for a relatively small neighborhood, but it is possible if residents can muster the financial support to acquire the site, repair and maintain it.

Reaching an agreement with the school district is a critical first step.

The district needs to be as wide open and transparent as possible as it considers its options.

Proposed uses for the property are important and the community, both for immediate neighbors and those districtwide, deserve the opportunity to learn about those proposals and have some meaningful involvement in the district’s decisions.

The district, of course, has to be cognizant of its fiscal responsibility to all impacted taxpayers, not just those in Santa Venetia.

But the community will that is being reflected in the recent neighborhood initiative could be an opening that keeps public property public.

The neighborhood deserves a fair shot.