Palo Alto and its school district are renegotiating the $65.5 million Cubberley Community Center land deal. Voters will decide Nov. 3 whether to approve the sales tax meant to fund the purchase.
The school board discussed the deal privately at a special meeting Sept. 8, and the City Council took up the topic again Sept. 14, the PA Daily Post first reported.
"A deal is never done. We could always discuss a better deal," Mayor Vicki Veenker told the Post in a Sept. 8 interview. She said something could happen before or after the election.
Measure J, a half-cent sales tax on the Nov. 3 ballot, would generate roughly $15.6 million a year with no expiration date, according to the city's impartial analysis. The City Council placed it on the ballot by unanimous vote June 8.
But the tax is a general-purpose levy. Proceeds go into the city's general fund and can legally be spent on anything. The Council adopted advisory spending guidelines in June stating its intention to use the money for the Cubberley purchase. Those guidelines are not binding.
The ballot question itself does not mention buying Cubberley by name. It references "repairing Cubberley Community Center" among a list of city services, according to the city's Measure J page.
What's at stake
The city already owns 8 acres of the 35-acre Cubberley campus at 4000 Middlefield Road. The proposed deal would add 7 acres from Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD), giving the city 15 acres total. Cubberley was a high school that closed in 1979. Since then, the city has leased buildings from the district and rented them to nonprofits, artists and youth programs.
Councilman Ed Lauing told the Post the city has not released its appraisal of the property because the Council is still exploring ways to acquire the land if the tax fails. He warned that if Measure J does not pass, the district could lease Cubberley to private schools and let the property value appreciate for a decade.
The city, he said, does not have another location for a community center.
Only 34% of Palo Alto voters surveyed in January said buying the Cubberley land was very or extremely important, according to city polling cited by the Post.
The district's side
PAUSD collects about $1 million a year in unrestricted funds from renting the 7 acres.
The Board of Education unanimously approved a $65.5 million spending plan laying out how it would use the sale proceeds: 67% ($43.9 million) for school maintenance, 28% ($18.3 million) for facility modernization and 5% ($3.3 million) for contingency, Palo Alto Online reported Aug. 26.
PAUSD Chief Financial Officer Charen Yu told the board at that meeting that sale proceeds cannot plug the district's general fund deficit. District money sits in legally separate accounts, she said, and the general fund covers salaries, benefits and daily operations.
The board then unanimously endorsed Measure J at its Sept. 15 meeting. Five nonprofits that operate at Cubberley, including Avenidas, TheatreWorks and Maker Nexus, want to raise money and secure space in a redeveloped center.
What's next
If voters approve Measure J by simple majority, the new tax rate would take effect in April 2027. What the city and district are negotiating now, and whether the final terms will differ from the October 2024 agreement, remains unclear. The city has not disclosed its appraisal, and neither side has detailed what is on the table.
