BUSD takes first board vote on purchasing back fire station property

In 1981, the Bonsall Union School District sold the Fallbrook Fire Protection District a parcel of land on Old River Road adjacent to the Bonsall Elementary School property for use as a fire station. The grant deed included a clause that if the land was to be used for something other than a fire station it was to be sold back to the school district for the purchase price of $35,000.

“The stipulation was that Bonsall would be able to repurchase the property at the same price they were selling the property for,” said current Bonsall Unified School District superintendent Justin Cunningham. “It is in the grant deed.”

The deed also applied to successor agencies. The Fallbrook Fire Protection District became the North County Fire Protection District in 1986 and the Bonsall Union School District converted to the Bonsall Unified School District in 2014. The changes between 1981 and 2015 also include the construction of a fire station and a parking area on the property covered by the deed, and North County Fire Protection District staff believe that the repurchase price should consider the improvements made to the property.

“We’re in negotiations with the fire protection district,” Cunningham said.

At the staff level, the fire district and the school district are both willing to negotiate. The first action from either district board was taken Jan. 13 when the BUSD board voted 4-0, with Timothy Coen absent, to support a purchase price of $35,000.

Public agency boards usually discuss real property negotiations in closed session, so any actual negotiations will likely occur in that forum. On Jan. 13, the North County Fire Protection District was still using the Old River Road station; NCFPD staff anticipate being able to relocate to the new Station 5 on Olive Hill Road in late January or early February.

“We’re basically going into negotiations with them,” Cunningham said. “I’m sure we’ll reach some agreement.”

The school district has not determined with certainty a use for the land should it be repurchased from the fire district.

“We’ve talked about it as possibly being a continuation high school,” Cunningham said.