SECTIONS 17485-17500 - California Statutes

EDUCATION CODE

SECTION 17485-17500

17485. The Legislature is concerned that school playgrounds,
playing fields, and recreational real property will be lost for those
uses by the surrounding communities even if those communities in
their planning process have assumed that the properties would be
permanently available for recreational purposes. It is the intent of
the Legislature in enacting this article to allow school districts to
recover their investment in surplus property while making it
possible for other agencies of government to acquire the property and
keep it available for playground, playing field or other outdoor
recreational and open-space purposes.

17486. This article shall apply to any schoolsite owned by a school
district, which the governing board determines to sell or lease, and
with respect to which the following conditions exist:
(a) Either the whole or a portion of the schoolsite consists of
land which is used for school playground, playing field, or other
outdoor recreational purposes and open-space land particularly suited
for recreational purposes.
(b) The land described in subdivision (a) has been used for one or
more of the purposes specified therein for at least eight years
immediately preceding the date of the governing board's determination
to sell or lease the schoolsite.
(c) No other available publicly owned land in the vicinity of the
schoolsite is adequate to meet the existing and foreseeable needs of
the community for playground, playing field, or other outdoor
recreational and open-space purposes, as determined by the governing
body of the public agency which proposes to purchase or lease land
from the school district, pursuant to Section 17492.

17487. As used in this article, "schoolsite" means a parcel of
land, or two or more contiguous parcels, which is owned by a school
district. "Governing board" means the governing board of the school
district which owns the schoolsite.

17488. The governing board of any school district may sell or lease
any schoolsite containing land described in Section 17486, and, if
the governing board decides to sell or lease such land, it shall do
so in accordance with the provisions of this article.

17489. Notwithstanding Section 54222 of the Government Code, the
governing board, prior to selling or leasing any schoolsite
containing land described in Section 17486, excluding that portion of
a schoolsite retained by the governing board pursuant to Section
17490, shall first offer to sell or lease that portion of the
schoolsite consisting of land described in Section 17486, excluding
that portion retained by the governing board pursuant to Section
17490, to the following public agencies in accordance with the
following priorities:
(a) First, to any city within which the land may be situated.
(b) Second, to any park or recreation district within which the
land may be situated.
(c) Third, to any regional park authority having jurisdiction
within the area in which the land is situated.
(d) Fourth, to any county within which the land may be situated.
The governing board shall have discretion to determine whether the
offer shall be an offer to sell or an offer to lease.
An entity which proposes to purchase or lease a schoolsite offered
by a school district shall notify the district of its intention, in
writing, within 60 days after receiving written notification from the
district of its offer to sell or lease.

17490. In determining what portion of a schoolsite shall be offered
for sale or lease pursuant to this article, the governing board may
retain any part of the schoolsite containing structures or buildings,
together with such land adjacent thereto which, as determined by the
governing board, must be included in order to avoid reducing the
value of that part of the schoolsite containing such structures or
buildings to less than 50 percent of fair market value.

17491. (a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (b) or (e),
the price at which land described in Section 17486, excluding that
portion of a schoolsite retained by the governing board pursuant to
Section 17490, is sold pursuant to this article shall not exceed the
school district's cost of acquisition, calculated as a pro rata cost
of acquiring the entire parcel comprising the schoolsite, adjusted by
a factor equivalent to the percentage increase or decrease in the
cost of living from the date of purchase to the year in which the
offer of sale is made, plus the cost of any improvement to the
recreational and open-space portion of the land which the school
district has made since its acquisition of the land. In no event
shall the price be less than 25 percent of the fair market value of
the land described in Section 17486 or less than the amount necessary
to retire the share of local bonded indebtedness plus the amount of
the original cost of the approved state aid applications on the
property, excluding that portion of a schoolsite retained by the
governing board pursuant to Section 17489, at the time of the offer.
These provisions shall apply to land that the school district
acquired by gift or for consideration.
(b) A school district that offers a portion of a schoolsite for
sale may offer such portion of property for sale at its fair market
value, provided the school district offers an equivalent size
alternative portion of that schoolsite for school playground, playing
field, or other recreational and open-space purposes.
(c) Land which is leased pursuant to this article shall be leased
at an annual rate of not more than 1/20th of the maximum sales price
determined pursuant to subdivision (a) of this section, adjusted
annually by a factor equivalent to the percentage increase or
decrease in the cost of living for the immediately preceding year.
(d) The percentage of annual increase or decrease in the cost of
living shall be the amount shown for January 1st of the appropriate
year by the then current Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumers Price
Index for the area in which the schoolsite is located.
(e) Whenever a school district closes a schoolsite and sells any
land described in Section 17486 pursuant to this article to help pay
only for capital outlay costs incurred directly as a result of the
transfer of pupils from the closed school to another school or other
schools of the district, the sale price of the property determined
pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be increased by an amount equal to
the additional costs incurred due to the school closure.

17492. The governing body of a public agency which proposes to
purchase or lease land from a school district pursuant to this
article shall first make a finding, approved by a vote of two-thirds
of its members, that public lands in the vicinity of the schoolsite
are inadequate to meet the existing and foreseeable needs of the
community for playground, playing field, or other outdoor
recreational and open-space purposes.

17493. (a) No public agency may purchase surplus school property
from a school district pursuant to this article unless it has first
adopted a plan for the purchase of surplus school property. The plan
shall designate the surplus site or sites all or a portion of which
the public agency desires to purchase at the price established
pursuant to this article and shall designate at least 70 percent of
the total surplus school acreage as property which the agency does
not desire to purchase at the price established pursuant to this
article. Where the plan indicates that the agency desires to purchase
only a portion of a schoolsite at the price established pursuant to
this article, it shall designate the percent of the property to be so
purchased and provide a description of the general location of the
property to be purchased, without designating the metes and bounds.
(b) Any property designated by public agencies as surplus
schoolsites which the agencies do not wish to purchase, pursuant to
subdivision (a), may be sold or leased by a school district without
regard to this article.
(c) This section shall become operative on April 1, 1982.

17494. Any land purchased or leased by a public agency pursuant to
this article shall thereafter be maintained by such agency for
playground, playing field, or other outdoor recreational and
open-space uses. Land which prior to its sale or lease was used for
playground or playing field purposes, shall continue to be maintained
for such use by the acquiring agency, unless the governing body of
that agency, by a two-thirds vote at a public hearing, determines
that there is no longer a significant need for the land to be so
used, in which case the land may thereafter be used for other outdoor
recreational or open-space purposes. The school district may, at any
time, reacquire the land at a price calculated in the manner
prescribed in Section 17491, and the rights of reacquisition provided
in this section shall be set forth in the deed or other instrument
of transfer. If the governing board of the public agency determines
that the land is no longer needed for playground, playing field, or
other outdoor recreational and open-space purposes, the public agency
shall offer the property to the school district for reacquisition
under this section, and the school district shall notify the public
agency within 60 days of its intent to reacquire the land. If the
school district intends to sell the property within one year of the
reacquisition date, the school district may finance the reacquisition
of the land by lien against the proceeds to be obtained from the
sale of the land by the school district. If the school district fails
to give the public agency timely notice of its intent to reacquire
the property, or if it fails to exercise its right of reacquisition,
the public agency may use or dispose of the property.
For purposes of this section, "cost of acquisition," as used in
Section 17491, shall refer to the cost at which the land was acquired
by the public agency.

17495. The sale or lease of land by a school district pursuant to
this article shall be subject to, and governed by, the provisions of
Article 2 (commencing with Section 17230) of Chapter 1 and Article 4
(commencing with Section 17455), except to the extent that the
provisions of this article are inconsistent with a provision or
provisions of Article 2 or 4, in which event the provisions of this
article shall govern the sale or lease.

17496. Failure by the school district to comply with the provisions
of this article shall not invalidate the transfer or conveyance of
real property to a purchaser or encumbrancer for value.

17497. Notwithstanding the other provisions of this article, any
school district governing board may designate not more than two
surplus schoolsites as exempt from the provisions of this article for
each planned schoolsite acquisition if the school district has an
immediate need for an additional schoolsite and is actively seeking
to acquire an additional site, and may exempt not more than one
surplus schoolsite if the district is seeking immediate expansion of
the classroom capacity of an existing school by 50 percent or more.
The exemption provided for by this section shall be inapplicable
to any schoolsite which, under a lease executed on or before July 1,
1974, with a term of 10 years, was leased to a city of under 100,000
population for park purposes, was improved at city expense, and used
for public park purposes.

17498. A school district having a schoolsite described in Section
17486 may, as an alternative to sale or lease of the land pursuant to
the foregoing provisions of this article, enter into other forms of
agreement concerning the disposition of the property with any entity
enumerated in Section 17489, in accordance with the priorities
therein specified, including, but not limited to each of the
following:
(a) An agreement to lease to such entity all or part of the
schoolsite for a specified term, with an option to purchase such
properties at the end of the term.
(b) An agreement granting to the entity a permanent open-space
easement for recreational use over a portion of the leased site.
(c) If the lessee or a grantee under an agreement is an entity
having zoning powers, an agreement requiring the entity to rezone any
portion of the property retained by the school district in
accordance with conditions specified in the agreement, to the extent
that rezoning in accordance with the conditions is in compliance with
applicable laws of the state.

17499. (a) No more than 30 percent of the total surplus school
acreage owned by a school district may be purchased or leased by
public agencies pursuant to this article.
(b) The right of any public agency to purchase or lease surplus
school property pursuant to this article shall exist only with
respect to an amount of surplus school acreage within its
jurisdictional boundaries which, when added to the surplus school
acreage within its jurisdictional boundaries already purchased or
leased pursuant to this article, will not exceed 30 percent of the
surplus school acreage owned by the school district which is within
the jurisdictional boundaries of that agency.
(c) For purposes of this section, "surplus school acreage" of a
school district means property which is owned by a district and not
used for school purposes, including, but not limited to, undeveloped
property and property which contains school buildings that are not in
use as a result of a school closure and which is not subject to any
lease or agreement executed on or before July 1, 1974, for a term in
excess of six years, in which any city containing a population of
less than 100,000 had use of the property for park purposes on
January 1, 1981, and had improved the property.
(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to deny local
agencies the opportunity to purchase at full market value all or part
of the 70 percent of the total surplus school acreage which is not
affected by this article.

17500. This article shall not apply to any school district having
more than 400,000 pupils in average daily attendance.