Foothill may nix Cubberley for alternate site

A possible $35 million deal with the City of Palo Alto to buy or lease eight acres of Cubberley Community Center for a new campus for the Foothill-De Anza Community College District may not happen after all.

After months of reviewing the city-owned portion of Cubberley, the college district is considering at least eight other sites for a new campus in Palo Alto, Mountain View and Sunnyvale.

A tour of the alternate sites was scheduled for the district’s five-member board of trustees on Friday but was cancelled due to the lack of a quorum.

The alternative sites range from a former Hewlett-Packard Company building found to contain industrial solvents in groundwater and soil at 395 Page Mill Road to a parcel of Mountain View’s research park at 205 Ravendale Drive, among others.

Even NASA-owned Moffett Field is being considered, according to district spokesperson Becky Bartindale.

Cubberley has never been the district’s only choice, but the search for alternatives intensified after Palo Alto City Council members all but recommended the city rent, rather than sell the land, she said.

At a January meeting between district representatives and the council — a study session requiring no vote — several council members said outright they would not consider selling the parcel.

The district then employed a real estate broker, Kevin Crawford of Ritchie Commercial, to look for other spots, Bartindale said, noting she has not attended talks between the city and district.

The district would prefer to buy land but might settle for a long-term lease of at least 25 years, she said.

The purchase or rental agreement would be funded by $40 million from 2006’s bond Measure C, and the district wants to invest voter money wisely, she said.

Negotiations for Cubberley might be further complicated by the Palo Alto Unified School District’s interest in the land, she said. It owns the rest of Cubberley.

The city has been leasing those 27 acres for $4 million annually for its community center, according to City Manager Frank Benest.

The college district already offers classes at its Middlefield Campus at Cubberley, occupying about 55,000 square feet, Bartindale said. Approximately 4,000 students per quarter use the campus.

The current lease is month-to-month, she said.

The district earlier spent months considering Cubberley for the site of a permanent campus, including a November feasibility study and January meetings with neighboring residents to present conceptual sketches of the possible 98,000-square-foot new campus.

City finance reports indicated selling the land could bring $35 million to city coffers, while an annual lease could net $1.4 million.

The future permanent campus, wherever it is located, will accommodate a 2 percent enrollment growth over 10 years, according to Andy Dunn, the district’s vice chancellor of business.

Cubberley isn’t off the table, Bartindale said.

Discussions are ongoing without a definite timeline, she said.