Housing tract OK'd for former school site

A developer was cleared to build 75 houses spanning the 12-acre site formerly known as Riverdale Elementary in Anaheim Hills. The City Council voted 4-1 this month to change the zoning for the shuttered campus, allowing TRI Pointe Homes to move ahead with plans to build two-story houses ranging from 2,450 to 2,829 square feet. Mayor Tom Tait cast the dissenting vote during a public hearing held Jan. 12, siding with opponents who wanted to keep the Riverdale site as a school or convert it into a sports park. Others raised concerns about increased traffic in the neighborhood. We longtime residents of the community have always had the expectation that Riverdale School would be used for education and sports fields, said Richard Foltz, whose backyard is adjacent to the west side of the campus. I hope none of you council members wash to be responsible for taking another Anaheim school and sports fields for a bunch of crowded homes, Foltz said. Riverdale closed in June 2010 and isChristian Academy, a private elementary school that opened in September 201L Officials with the Rock Christian Academy declined to say how much they paid in rent for the facility. School district officials did not return messages asking about the rent payments. TRI Pointe Homes purchased the land for $17.9 million in October 2014 from the Orange Unified School District, which had declared Riverdale Elementary' as surplus property amid declining enrollment. By state law, all money from property sales has to be used for improvements to campuses and facilities within the school district, which serves about 30,000 students from kindergarten through high school in all or parts of Anaheim, Orange, Villa Park, Garden Grove and Santa Ana. Despite concerns about aging facilities, Orange Unified has never passed a bond measure. Most recently, voters narrowly rejected a $296 million bond in 2014 that would have fixed up the district s four aging high schools. I m really hopeful that the Orange Urict can come to a consensus on how to move forward in ways that other districts in the city have to improve schools, but right now funding is a dire and critical need for facility enhancement for schools across the eastern end of our city, Councilwoman Kris Murray