On a sunny day in the North Panhandle neighborhood of San Francisco, Larry DeSpain is in the upstairs flat of his home at 911 Central St. His antique dining room table is covered with stacks of flyers, postcards, and other literature that promote a cause that he and his newly formed neighborhood group care very deeply about: stopping the San Francisco Day School from expanding its campus as they have proposed to.
San Francisco Day School at 350 Masonic Ave has plans to demolish a small Victorian building at 2130 Golden Gate Ave., which they had purchased in 2001, in order to construct a new science building with a 20-car parking garage in the basement. The addition would be a 2-story glass and steel building with a learning garden on the roof. The project would allow them to increase their enrollment cap from 400 to 430 students.
Several of the school’s neighbors are frustrated with the proposition and have combined their efforts to ensure that the expansion of the Day School does not compromise the residential quality, and quality of life, in the neighborhood. They call their alliance Neighbors United to Stop Day School Expansion, NUTSDE or simply Neighbors United for short.
“If we are going to take on the school, we are going to have to be a lot better organized, and use a lot of time and energy, and invest some money into the whole thing,” says Larry DeSpain of Neighbors United, standing over the pile of propaganda on his dining room table. “From buttons to T-shirts, we’re building a stronger case.”
DeSpain, who has lived at his residence for more than 30 years, says that he and several of his neighbors tried to prevent the school from even opening in 1985.
“If you live in this neighborhood, and you’re at home during the day, you pray for rain. You look forward to summer vacation and other school holidays when the children are not here because they scream” says DeSpain, who recently retired. “You go outside and it’s just constant screaming. The noise reverberates throughout the entire neighborhood.”
Nearly 300 residents in the North Panhandle neighborhood have signed petitions, and sent letters to the group, expressing support of Neighbors United’s position.
Carolyn Sasser, Business Manager at San Francisco Day School, says that the private K-8 is interested in the concerns of its neighbors.
“We went to meetings and worked with them to address their suggestions, and then all of a sudden they took a stance against our proposal,” says Sasser. “It’s been an uphill battle.”
Tom Stack, who lives 3-doors-down from the Day School, says that the expansion project will only make matters worse. Stack says that noise, traffic hazards, night-time light pollution, as well as obstruction of sunlight and views are just some of the problems that the Day School creates for its neighbors.
“They never addressed the existing problems,” says Stack, a member of Neighbors United.
With only 8 spaces of off-street parking on the Day School property, many parents resort to double-parking when picking up, or dropping off their children.
Michael Helquist, of the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association, says that he has a big problem with the Day School’s parking situation, and that his driveway has been blocked on several occasions because of it.
“The Day School is located on a on a particular corner that has 2 major thoroughfares,” says Helquist referring to Masonic Avenue and Golden Gate Avenue. “Most of the kids that go there are not from the immediate neighborhood.”
Helquist says he is not opposed to expansion, or children, but would like to see San Francisco Day School design something that works for them, and for the neighborhood.
“I don’t like the idea of a massive block of a building in the neighborhood,” says Helquist. “Institutionalism changes how people see and relate to where they live.”
Marta Fry, a landscape architect who owns a home on Turk Street, right behind the Day School, says that their expansion proposition is unacceptable.
“I would like to see the school seriously reconsider its configuration and be more creative with the space they have,” says Fry. “They should stay within their own footprint.”
San Francisco Day School first proposed its expansion project to the San Francisco Planning Department February 15, 2005, says the school’s database manager Meredyth Skemp. At that time, they expected to have to wait through a lengthy environmental review process, but the Planning Department insisted that categorical exemption was the appropriate vehicle for them.
Categorical exemption (or Cat Ex) would require a non-extensive historical review of the building that the school plans to demolish in order to receive a conditional-use permit. Once permitted by the Planning Department, the school would be allowed to demolish the existing building at 2130 Golden Gate Ave., and use the space to expand their campus as planned.
Since then, San Francisco architect Joe Butler, of Little House Committee, has taken interest in the Day School’s 117-year-old Victorian. He met with Neighbors United earlier this year and they have since joined efforts to stop the Day School expansion project right in its tracks.
Butler has stopped numerous pre-1906 homes in San Francisco from being demolished by producing reports that illustrate their historical significance and appealing to the city’s Board of Supervisors, according to articles written by the San Francisco Examiner.
“The school needs to work within the law, and with its neighbors, to expand in a way that acknowledges both the history of the site and the needs of the community that they are a part of,” says Butler.
Neighbors United, through Butler, have contracted a secondary historical report on the building at 2130 Golden Gate Ave., and its immediate neighborhood. Butler submitted the report to the Board of Supervisors in an appeal last March.
In April, San Francisco Planning Department rescinded the Day School’s application for categorical exemption, stating that it is necessary to determine the historical significance of the property they plan to demolish, as well as its neighborhood.
“Now they are going to have to hire a consultant and do an EIR (environmental investigative review) that concentrates on historical relevance,” says Mary Woods of the San Francisco Planning Department. “This is going to set them back at least a year.”
While Larry DeSpain says Neighbors United is going to celebrate the Planning Department’s decision, Carolyn Sasser says that the Day School faculty is busy wrapping up the academic year and appointing a new Head of School.
Sasser says that the San Francisco Day School is very disappointed by the decision. She is not sure when, or how, they will resume their expansion efforts.
“Do we take a step back?” says Sasser. “Right now we just don’t know.”
No comments:
Post a Comment