Castilleja School's ambitious plan to redevelop its Bryant Street campus ran into a fresh complication Wednesday night, with members of Palo Alto's Planning and Transportation Commission voicing concerns about the school's proposed garage and suggesting that its analysis needs more work.
After a lengthy public hearing, which featured more than two-and-a-half hours of public comments and 200 pages of letters both supporting and protesting the project, the commission agreed to postpone most of its discussion to Sept. 9. But before the meeting concluded, numerous commissioners said they were concerned that Castilleja hadn't adequately explored redevelopment options that forego the plan's most contentious feature: an underground garage.
The project, which has been in the works for the past four years, is expected to go to the City Council later this fall. It calls for a phased building plan that includes the construction of the garage; the relocation of the swimming pool to an underground level and the replacement of most of the campus' buildings. Castilleja, a private all-girls school that serves middle and high school students, is also applying for a new conditional use permit that would allow an increase in enrollment from the current level of 426 to 540.
On Wednesday, the commission heard from dozens of speakers, with supporters of the project lauding Castilleja as a considerate neighbor and a valuable institution and opponents suggesting that the school adds no real benefits to Palo Alto and that it should look for another location if it wants to expand.
Some residents, including those affiliated with the group PNQLNow (Preserve Neighborhood Quality of Life Now), maintained that the proposed underground garage is both illegal and incompatible with their single-family neighborhood. Castilleja countered that the garage is permitted for nonresidential uses and that it was introduced into the project at the suggestion of the very neighbors who are now opposing it.
While Castilleja tried to appease the critics earlier this year by adding an alternative that would reduce the garage and disperse pick-up and drop-off points fr students at three areas of campus, the new option did little to appease critics. Several residents suggested that the school adopt a model in which all students are dropped off at parking lots farther from the campus and shuttled in. Hank Sousa suggested that the school can utilize parking lots at Shoreline Athletic Field and at the Baylands Athletic Field.
"Please recommend this 21st century way of commuting as a complement to the green buildings the school is proposing to construct," said resident Hank Sousa, who is affiliated with PNQLNow.
Andie Reed, a member of PNQLNow, argued that the school's goal of raising enrollment to 540 students is too ambitious and suggested that its conflict with the neighborhood could be resolved if Castilleja lowered its goal to about 450 students and implemented an alternative that does not include a garage.
Reed suggested that the city "set aside Castilleja's insistence on the city's permitting 540 students and focus on how a lower enrollment number would work."
Other residents strongly supported Castilleja's plan. They argued the opposition will keep on finding new reasons to attack the project, no matter what the school does.
"For the opposition, the target keeps moving," said Nancy Tuck, a neighborhood resident whose daughter graduated from Castilleja. "Castilleja makes the requested changes and new issues are invented. Nothing will placate them."
Tom Kemp, a resident of Midtown, noted that the school's revised plan, which reduces the size of the garage, allows Castilleja to save two homes on Emerson Street that were originally scheduled for demolition and to preserve more trees than in the original proposal. Both of those impacts have been heavily criticized by PNQLNow and other opponents of the Castilleja development in the months before the revised garage plan was released.
Glowe Chang, who lives near the school, also said she supports the expansion.
"I'm proud to have a school nearby offering opportunities to young women, and happy to support all of Casti's expansion efforts," Chang said.
While the commission saved most of its discussion for Sept. 9, several members indicated Wednesday that they will want to see further analysis before they could support the project.
Commissioner William Riggs argued that the "no garage" alternative in the Final Environmental Impact Report is "oversimplified" and "unacceptable." He similarly argued that the document's treatment of the "no project" alternative, including an exploration of a different site for expansion, is a "glaring omission."
Commission Chair Cari Templeton similarly argued that the EIR should have done a better job in exploring the "no garage" alternative and echoed the view of critics who maintained that installing a garage runs counter to the school's green goals.
"I expected something more sincere," Templeton said, referring to the analysis of the no-garage option.
Commissioner Doria Summa meanwhile said she wants to make sure the new conditional use permit for Castilleja includes enforcement mechanisms that ensure that the school does not exceed its enrollment limits or violate any of the conditions.
"For me to be comfortable, we need to find a way to a CUP that the city and school can enforce together because that has not been done for basically two decades," Summa said.
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Castilleja School struggles to find compromise in expansion plan - Palo Alto Online
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