How plans to construct a new classroom building at the Carey School in San Mateo could affect traffic and parking on and near the intersection of West 20th Avenue and Alameda de las Pulgas were among the factors the San Mateo Planning Commission considered in reviewing the school’s expansion application Tuesday.
By demolishing a 2,760-square-foot, one-story classroom building and replacing it with a two-story building offering 6,570 square feet of classroom and multi-purpose space, school officials are hoping to make way for an increase of up to nine students and five additional staff members, bringing the student enrollment to a maximum of 258 and the number of full-time staff to 52, said Duncan Lyon, head of the school.
Though the school was founded in 1928, its current buildings were constructed in 1955 adjacent to the site where Junipero Serra High School currently stands at 451 W. 20th Ave., said Lyon. Acknowledging the school’s proximity to the high school and single-family homes in the surrounding neighborhood, Lyon said the school community has taken steps to coordinate carpools and stagger pick-ups and drop-offs at the school, and would continue to do so as part of the expansion, if approved.
With 249 students currently enrolled in pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade from San Mateo and neighboring cities, demand for the school and its afterschool care, arts and adventure programs has remained high for years, a challenge Lyon is hoping to meet with the expansion. He said the new classroom building would offer classrooms for the school’s first- and second-grades, as well as meeting, office and multi-purpose space.
“What you’re looking at, it would be an increase in our multi-purpose space that we desperately need,” he said, according to a video of the meeting. “We have a paucity of space to address some of these needs.”
Commissioners weighed letters and feedback from a neighborhood meeting outlining concerns about traffic congestion near West 20th Avenue and Alameda de las Pulgas and how an uptick in enrollment could affect traffic and parking in the neighborhood surrounding the site. Vice Chair Mike Etheridge joined other commissioners in advocating school officials take a closer look at the traffic demand management plan and traffic studies before a final application for the new building’s design and a change in the site’s zoning is submitted in the coming months.
“Where the school is located, I’m not sure that continuing to increase enrollment and the density of that building is beneficial to the neighborhood that it is in,” he said.
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Lyon said the school takes traffic very seriously, using staggered times to coordinate drop-offs and pick-ups for third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students on Alameda de las Pulgas and coordination of carpools, which he estimated some 40 percent of students use to get to school in the mornings. He added the school also has an agreement with nearby office buildings at 2000 Alameda de las Pulgas to create 30 off-site parking spots, which would bolster the 27 spaces provided on the site.
Commissioner John Ebneter and Etheridge encouraged the school to explore ways to incorporate energy-efficient building principles in the new building’s design and noted sustainable building features could also be a good learning tool for students.
Commissioners grappled with the school’s request for an overlay zoning district that could accommodate additional density on the site, a designation previously approved for the St. Matthew’s Catholic Parish and School and Junipero Serra High School. Chair Dianne Whitaker said she supported the school’s request for the zoning district, noting it would be the eighth one granted in the city, if approved, and has been used for schools in the past. She agreed with other commissioners in commending the design of the building, and though she acknowledged the new design is dense, she felt it was necessary given the unique shape and size of the 96,400-square-foot parcel.
“I realize that you have a very constricted site and in terms of site-planning, it feels a bit dense,” she said. “But you know, that’s the reality that we’re going to have to live with because of the size and shape of the parcel.”
In other business, the commission approved a resolution finding a city-owned home at 728 First Ave. is consistent with the city’s General Plan as a first step toward selling the property. Purchased in 1989 as part of a plan to create a linear park along San Mateo Creek, the one-bedroom, 750-square-foot home on a 3,900-square-foot lot is now in need of costly repairs and is exempt from a state law requiring surplus public land be offered for housing development. To maximize profit to the city, staff recommended the city sell the property, and commissioners voted 3-1 to suggest to the City Council to dedicate one-third of the profits from the property’s sale to a child care fund, a very low-income housing allocation and toward the city’s Parks and Recreation projects.
The powers that be cannot keep granting permissions for endless high density housing and massive office space structures and NOT approve schools asking to increase capacity. It's unfortunate that The Carey School doesn't have the ability to add more classroom space. You don't see any new public schools being built, do you?
They never should have sealed of La Salle Drive from Alameda De Las Pulgas in 1974 when they built the Garden Apartments. Having that street sealed off makes traffic stack up on Alameda and 20th Avenue and causes a bottleneck for parents of Carey students and others. La Salle went all the way through to Alameda in the day and should be considered again.
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The powers that be cannot keep granting permissions for endless high density housing and massive office space structures and NOT approve schools asking to increase capacity. It's unfortunate that The Carey School doesn't have the ability to add more classroom space. You don't see any new public schools being built, do you?
They never should have sealed of La Salle Drive from Alameda De Las Pulgas in 1974 when they built the Garden Apartments. Having that street sealed off makes traffic stack up on Alameda and 20th Avenue and causes a bottleneck for parents of Carey students and others. La Salle went all the way through to Alameda in the day and should be considered again.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.