POWAY, Calif. — A proposed Costco on a site owned by Poway Unified School District is no more. According to a press release the two parties have “mutually agreed to end all negotiations related to the Black Mountain Ranch site.”
The release continued, “The District is interested in continuing conversations with the community to gather input and ideas on how to leverage the asset to benefit the Poway Unified School District. On March 18, staff will host a second community meeting to review ideas generated by attendees from the previous meeting. The Board of Education will be presented with the information gathered from the two community meetings as well as potential recommendations from staff at a future Board meeting.”
In September of 2020, Poway Unified school board members voted in favor of the plan to lease 27 acres at the intersection of Carmel Valley Road and Camino Del Sur to Costco. The school district said a middle school is no longer needed at the site, so it declared the land surplus property in 2012, and again in 2019.
Poway Unified said it’s facing a deficit and rather than putting in a middle school as planned, it would lease the land to Costco over 40 years. After outcry, the district scheduled two virtual community meetings on alternatives to leasing the district-owned land to Costco.
Parents said they are worried about traffic. “There's been over thirty-two recorded accidents and several deaths in the past five years, including one that was only a few months ago,” said Lucy Beard.
Read the full release below:
