|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Almanac By Andrea Gemmet After hours of meetings, untold thousands of dollars and enough paperwork to fell a small forest, Phillips Brooks School's controversial plan to
build a campus in Woodside came to an anticlimactic finale last week when school officials decided to pull the plug on the project at a board meeting. Board of Trustees chairman Sam Bronfman announced last
Thursday that school officials unanimously decided not to appeal the Woodside Planning Commission's September 18 denial of its campus project. He cited escalating costs, anticipated legal challenges and further
delays among the reasons the Menlo Park-based private school chose to abandon its five-year effort to relocate to an undeveloped, 92-acre parcel along Interstate 280 between Woodside and Sand Hill roads. The land is
zoned for residential use, and has a preliminary approval for a nine-home subdivision in the form of a tentative vesting map. Mr. Bronfman said the school will work with Woodside staff to record a final
subdivision map by the middle of next year creating nine residential lots, and after that will likely sell the property. "We're just disappointed that the outcome of the last five years is that we're not able to
build our school in Woodside, because it would've been great for both the school and the town," said Mr. Bronfman. The numerous conditions that would have been imposed on the project -- the Planning
Commission was in the midst of considering 68 of them encompassing everything from limits on vehicle trips to wetland restoration -- would have been too restrictive, he said. "The conditions collectively would
have created an environment of little flexibility in the ongoing operations of the school," said Mr. Bronfman. Phillips Brooks parents he's spoken with have been disappointed but understanding about the
decision, he said. The preschool-through-fifth-grade private school will continue to operate at its Avy Avenue location, which it leases from Menlo Park's Las Lomitas School District, for the foreseeable
future, he said. Woodside officials were prepared for a series of long, crowded and contentious meetings to consider an appeal on the project, and had already set aside six meeting dates in October and
November. The Town Council is still scheduled to meet October 1 to hear two appeals filed in May by residents seeking to overturn the Planning Commission's certification of the project's environmental impact
report. Town Manager Susan George is recommending that the council revoke the EIR certification because the Planning Commission's decision was made when it appeared the project would be approved, and several of
the findings for certification are now in conflict with the commission's denial of the project. Mr. Bronfman would not give specifics, but said that estimated construction costs for the campus have tripled since
1997, when school first proffered its proposal. He also mentioned the expensive environmental impact report, which was completely revised when the school redesigned the campus after it was unenthusiastically
received by town officials and many residents. Phillips Brooks purchased the property for $6.9 million in 1997 after it had been sold by the neighboring Lawler family and subsequently passed through the hands
of several owners without ever being built upon. The 290-student campus was seen by opponents as a damaging and overly intense use of environmentally fragile land that would cause major traffic and safety headaches
for the town and undermine the integrity of Woodside' development rules as enumerated in the general plan. The school's supporters saw the campus as a welcome addition to a town short on playing fields,
classroom space and other facilities, and touted the design which would concentrate development on about 13 of the property's 92 acres, preserving rural scenery along I-280 as well as large swaths of open space.
However, it was a dispute over the wording of open space agreements between the school and the town that reversed the divided Planning Commission's initial support of the Phillips Brooks project. School officials
balked over the town's open space easement language, saying it was too restrictive and would make building and operating the campus unfeasible. Town staff countered that Phillips Brooks' easement language was too
full of loopholes and would not protect areas of pristine open space. Ultimately, Commissioner K.C. Kelley, the swing vote, withdrew her support for the project, declaring that the easements the school were
offering "ain't open space." The project was denied on a 4-3 vote. Jody Lawler, one of the most vocal opponents of the Phillips Brooks campus, said that while she was relieved with the school's
decision to abandon the project, she felt bad for the plan's supporters. "I take no pleasure in their disappointment, but I'd hate to see them (continue to) throw good money after bad," Ms. Lawler said.
"People get emotional about their children, but it's really just a land use issue." |
|
|
|
||||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
