Aliso Viejo : Another $35,000 OKd for Fitness Academy

The county Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to spend another $35,000 to complete paper work for the national physical fitness academy to be built in Aliso Viejo.

The expenditure will boost the total spent by the county for that project to nearly $105,000. The facility is planned as a training site for coaches and physical fitness instructors of youth and senior citizens.

The National Fitness Foundation, a nonprofit organization headed by George Allen, is raising funds for the academy, which is expected to cost $50 million. Allen, the former coach of the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins, also is chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Supervisor Ralph Clark voted against the expenditure, saying: “I continue to support the fitness academy, but not the financial arrangements that go with it.”

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, in whose district the academy will be located, urged his board colleagues to spend the money to complete an environmental impact report and site plan.

Last year, the supervisors spent $59,900 for staff time and consultants’ time on the academy. When an additional $59,900 was requested, they cut the amount to $11,000 because it was uncertain that the foundation had committed itself to the Aliso Viejo site.

But in January, the foundation signed a lease option, under which the county allows free use of the 200-acre site for 50 years, with options to extend the lease another 40 years.