Report: School expansion would cause significant traffic issues

Castilleja reportedly has been disregarding enrollment cap

A controversial plan to expand an exclusive all-girls school in Palo Alto would cause “significant and unavoidable” traffic issues on nearby residential streets, a new report released Wednesday says.

The highly anticipated environmental report for the proposed expansion of Castilleja School at 1310 Bryant St. in Palo Alto outlines the project’s ramifications for the surrounding neighborhood.

The report comes amid conflict between Castilleja and its neighbors who have been at odds for years after the discovery that the school had disregarded its enrollment cap for nearly 15 years. The tension has continued to build over the past several years following the school’s June 2016 application to redevelop its campus and amend its conditional use permit with the city.

Castilleja — a 112-yearold private school that serves sixth to 12 grade girls and costs about $46,000 a year to attend — is on a 6-acre parcel in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The school’s campus is bound by Embarcadero Road, Bryant Street, Kellogg Avenue and Emerson Street.

The school’s proposal calls for demolishing two houses owned by the Castilleja School Foundation and three campus buildings, and replacing them with one large campus facility, with enrollment increasing 30% — from 434 to 540 students. Construction of the new campus would take about three years to complete, school faculty estimate.

Although the redevelopment plans will remain within the school’s current campus footprint, it would add about 80,000 square feet of facilities to the campus with a new underground parking garage and classroom space.

Under the school’s proposal, it would increase its enrollment by a maximum of 27 students each year for at least four years.

In 2000, the city awarded Castilleja with a use permit that allowed for an enrollment of 415 students, a stipulation that the school has violated for nearly two decades.

When the city was alerted to the enrollment violation in 2013, it fined the school roughly $300,000 for exceeding the cap. Since then, the school has been working to incrementally reduce its enrollment from a high of 448 students.

The enrollment violations caused strife and distrust within the community that still remain, with yard signs both for and against the expansion littered throughout the neighborhood.

Lorraine Brown, the

school’s director of communications and community relations, acknowledged the distrust among some community members and said the school is “committed to working” with them to find the best path forward.

“There’s no excuse for it,” Brown said about exceeding the enrollment cap. “It has been our great intent for the past few years to rebuild trust with the community.”

Andie Reed is a member of Protect Neighborhood Quality of Life Now, a group formed nearly three years ago by neighbors opposed to the school’s proposal and frustrated by its disregard for the city mandates.

Reed, in particular, wants the school to do away with the underground parking lot and its “flawed traffic flow” that she feels will “devastate the neighborhood,” she said.

“We are not against the school modernizing, upgrading and redoing their school. We want them to do that, and they should if that’s what they desire,” Reed said. “But they need to be cognizant of what this does to the neighborhood.”

The proposed underground parking garage would require all cars to enter on Bryant Boulevard — a designated bike boulevard used by students throughout Palo Alto — and exit by making a right onto Emerson Street heading toward Embarcadero Road.

The report found that that plan would cause “significant and unavoidable” traffic impacts to the segment of Emerson Street between Embarcadero Road and Melville Avenue, where 679 daily trips would be added.

The substantial increase in trips would result in a “noticeable change in conditions for residents along this segment,” the report stated.

Brown said the school stands by the parking garage and its objective to reduce the number of cars on the street, a request heard from nearby residents and supported by the environmental

impact report.

“I’m not reading in the EIR that the garage is the problem, I’m reading that there is an issue with Emerson Street and outflow from the garage,” Brown said Wednesday. “So I feel like what we need to study is traffic patterns in and out of the garage but not the garage fundamentally in and of itself.”

In order to reduce traffic problems, the report offered three alternatives to the school’s current proposal: keeping the campus in its current state, limiting the school’s enrollment to a maximum of 506 students and building 46 fewer parking spots and two fewer classrooms.

Brown said Wednesday that the school’s faculty will continue to analyze its maximum enrollment proposal and garage design and work with the city to find a plan that “doesn’t have a negative impact on the community.”

Aside from the traffic issues, the report found that the proposal was compatible with the city’s comprehensive plan and sustainability goals and did not negatively impact the bike boulevard on Bryant Street.

Residents can view the full environmental impact report on the city’s website or in the Downtown Library, Development Center

and fifth floor of City Hall.

Public comments can be submitted to the city until Sept. 16. The city’s planning and transportation commission will evaluate the EIR at a meeting on Aug. 14 and the historic resources board will discuss it on Sept. 12.