WHAT’S LEFT? ARCHER NEIGHBORS SEEK MORE RESTRICTIONS ON EXPANSION PROJECT

LETTER TO COUNCIL MEMBERS

June 15, 2015

Councilmember Jose Huizar, Chair

Councilmember Gilbert A. Cedillo

Councilmember Mitchell Englander

Planning and Land Use Management Committee

Board of Public Works, Edward R. Roybal Hearing Room 350, 200 North Spring Street Los Angeles, CA  90012

Re: Archer Project CPC-2014-666-VCU-ZAA-SPR

Dear Council members,

As a neighbor directly affected by the proposed expansion plan by Archer School for Girls (Archer), I am writing to ask that you reverse the decision of the City Planning Commission and impose further restrictions and limitations on Archer’s Proposed Project as well as the Conditions of Approval.

For over two years Councilmember Mike Bonin and his staff have worked with the community to make sure that the proposed Archer expansion plan would not worsen traffic or have harmful impacts on the neighborhood.

After months of negotiations with the neighbors and school officials, Councilmember Bonin requested at the April 23 City Planning Commission hearing that the Commission incorporate changes into the project in order “to ensure that the project does not impact the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood.” Unfortunately, the Commission did not honor his request.  I respectfully ask that you implement the changes requested by Councilmember Bonin in his April 22, 2015 letter to the City Planning Commission.

I also request that you further modify the Project by adopting the conditions listed below proposed by the Residential Neighbors of Archer.  These changes are necessary to mitigate the impact to the neighborhood from an intensification of use and to ensure that the Conditions of Approval are complied with through effective enforcement mechanisms.  Without these additional changes, the Project will not be fully or adequately conditioned and will lack effective means of compliance and enforcement.   (These modifications can be found in the revised Conditions of Approval submitted to the PLUM Committee by Thelma Waxman on behalf of the Residential Neighbors of Archer.)

As Councilmember Bonin observed in his letter to the Commission, “Although the recommended conditions require additional trip caps and mitigation measures designed to remove traffic impacts under CEQA,  that does not go far enough to reduce the real impacts of the project’s traffic burden on the neighborhood.”   The only way to reduce the real impacts of the project is to implement Councilmember Bonin’s changes and adopt the Revised Conditions of Approval submitted by the RNA, specifically the modifications outlined below.

1. Mitigate impacts from noise on weeknights and weekends.
2. Mitigate significant and unavoidable impacts from use of the campus on Saturdays

• Require that Extracurricular Activities, Customary School Activities, and Special Events that are held in outdoor courtyards end at 6pm Monday through Friday (includes Court of Leaders, Arts Plaza) instead of the proposed 10pm.
• Implement Councilmember Bonin’s request to use the underground passageway in the parking garage after 6pm weekdays, all day Saturday and Sunday.
• Define the Academic Year as 10 months (CPC approved an Academic Year of 12 months July 1 to June 30) to prevent full School operations six days a week, 12 months per year and specify exclusion of use on Federal holidays.
• Limit Saturday use of the campus to only Customary School Activities (a maximum of 50 people vs. the requested 30% of 518 enrolled students for all activities) inside Buildings accessed via the underground pedestrian passageway. Outdoor spaces shall be used for transitioning only.

3. Mitigate traffic impacts from intensification of use
4. Implement additional compliance and enforcement provisions

• With no evidence to support overriding considerations for Saturday use of Athletic Field, deny Statement of Overriding Considerations and prohibit use of the Athletic Field on weekends for any School activity, including Athletic Competitions, Practices, Instruction and other Customary School Activities.
• Limit start times of Athletic Competitions to no later than 6:00pm.
• Limit the total number of permanent striped parking spaces to 164 per Councilmember
• To further address traffic impacts from up to 250 cars exiting onto Sunset Boulevard, limit stack parking to 185 cars for Special Events with 300 or more guests in attendance and require the use of Traffic Control Officers.  With no limits on the use of stack parking, the School could park 250 cars every day.
• Limit Chaparal Street access for emergency use only.
• Prohibit use of Barrington parcel for staging and access during construction (just feet away from residences on three sides)
• Prohibit access via the Barrington parcel during permanent school operations.
• Require access to the Project site by construction vehicles of all types via Sunset Boulevard.
• Require traffic counts twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring, on a typical school day between 7:00am to 9:00am and 3:00pm to 7:00pm (which Brentwood School currently does).
• Require audits by a third party twice a year of the Parking Reservation System in order to show compliance with the peak hour vehicle trip caps and attendance caps for Special Events and Interscholastic Athletic Competitions.
• Require compliance and reporting of transportation management programs annually (vs. only five years). Compliance should not have a time limit but be ongoing in order for the community to have confidence that the conditions in place are working and are effective.
• Require that Plan Approvals occur at the very least every other year during construction and then every three years after the first full year of operations after construction to review level of compliance with the conditions.

If these further modifications, along with Councilmember Bonin’s changes, are not made, then the Councilmember’s demands that “the proposal be changed in order to fulfill my strict requirements to protect Brentwood and reduce traffic congestion” will not be met.

Sincerely,

And this Note from Brentwood Homeowners Assn