By Lauren McSherry

Selling city-owned land and chipping in $2.5 million of city funds have entered the mix of possibilities as Los Altos Hills pursues purchasing a property that could serve as the Bullis Charter School’s future campus.

The city wants to buy a white ranch-style house and the 3.3-acre site that it sits on across the street from the Little League fields and riding ring on Purissima Road.

The council directed staff Thursday to look into either swapping a city-owned 1.8-acre parcel on Page Mill Road for the Purissima property or selling the parcel and using the proceeds to purchase the Purissima property.

The narrow 1.8-acre Page Mill parcel contains steep slopes and a public pathway. It is an unusual shape but could be developed “under highly regulated circumstances,” Planning Director Carl Cahill told the council. The parcel is one of approximately 10 other city-owned parcels designated as public open space.

Because of their small size, they are not protected under the city’s open space initiative requiring majority approval from registered voters in Los Altos Hills for designated public open space to be sold or developed.

“If the council thought (the property) had an overriding good for the community, it could take that action,” said Nancy Couperus who worked on the initiative in 2002.

Selling or swapping the Page Mill property could defray the city’s out-of-pocket expenses if it acquired the Purissima property for the charter school.

The charter school’s foundation offered during Thursday’s council meeting to put $1 million toward purchasing the property and requested the city supply $2.5 million and pay for a consultant to analyze the feasibility of locating a school there. The council will consider a formal proposal at its next meeting.

In June the council and charter school teamed up after the foundation announced its capital campaign had raised $5 million toward establishing the charter school within city bounds.

The foundation would like to have the school built and fully operational by August 2006, said Chris Vargas, foundation spokesman.

This year, 74 students from Los Altos Hills living in the Los Altos School District attended the charter school, according to the district. There are approximately 1,000 school age children living in Los Altos Hills.

Los Altos Hills lost its last public school in 2003 when the school district closed Bullis-Purissima Elementary School. The district has declined to lease the closed site to the charter school.