Car Dealer Beats District to School Site

A San Fernando Valley car dealer has purchased a Van Nuys property that was under consideration for use as a middle school site, but a school board member said Wednesday that the district could seize the property under eminent domain.

Bert Boeckmann, who runs Galpin Ford, bought the former Van Nuys Drive-In in a deal arranged by real estate broker and mayoral candidate Steve Soboroff. Boeckmann plans to use the land to store vehicles for his nearby Ford dealership.

Los Angeles Unified School District board member Caprice Young said the district has been conducting environmental tests on the site for six months. To start over on a new site, if one can be found, would cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars, she said. A new middle school is needed to relieve local overcrowding.

There are no alternative school sites, Young said, but there are other places for Boeckmann to park his cars.

“The good thing about Bert Boeckmann is, he really cares about kids and education,” Young said. “We are hoping he will be reasonable. And if not, we have the power of eminent domain.”

Robert Buxbaum, the district’s interim general manager of facilities, said he believes that taking the property through eminent domain may be the only way to deal with the property’s current owner, Circuit City. The company was represented in the real estate deal by Soboroff, who was chairman of the Proposition BB oversight committee on school construction at the time.

“We absolutely need this site,” Buxbaum said. “It was located as result of a very extensive search. There are something like 2,000 kids in the neighborhood next to it who will need a new middle school. The only two options for a site like this are having a willing seller or eminent domain.”

Soboroff said he gave the district first chance at buying the property, but officials had not made a final decision. The district became interested only after Boeckmann bought the land, he said.

“The story is, the district is in chaos, and they don’t know what they’re doing with real estate,” said Soboroff, who made about $200,000 on the sale.

If the district had made an offer on the property before Boeckmann, Soboroff said, it could have tied up the property so no one else could buy it.

Buxbaum said the district could not have bought the parcel until all environmental studies had been completed.

Boeckmann said the site is crucial for his business.

“If they take [the site], is there any property I can get?” said Boeckmann. “I haven’t been able to find it. They can just find a smaller property.”

School Supt. Roy Romer said the issue comes down to whether it is more important for the car dealer to expand or for the neighborhood’s children to have a school.

“We have very professional studies that show this the ideal site,” Romer said. “Where are the values? There is no other site in the area where those kids can walk to school, pure and simple.”

A court order last May gave the district the right to conduct environmental studies, which must be completed before it can purchase or seize a site. Since the sale, Boeckmann has barred the district from continuing the studies.