At one point a sheriff lieutenant was called in to escort out a man who had left his seat and was advancing on the committee, calling them “fascist”: “None of you live on Palm — you creeps!” he said as he was led out.
Pictured: the Palm Street school site.
The hearing was for a conditional use permit (CUP) for the Arroyo Pacific Academy, which operates a private school in Arcadia. Academy president Philip Clarke hopes to open another campus at the site at 183-205 E. Palm St., which has been a hotbed of neighborhood concern since another school opened there without permits in 2008. Estimates of the crowd attending Tuesday night’s meeting were between 150-185.
Academy: problems can be solved
Clarke told the committee that the Palm Street campus would start with 120 students, and planned for a maximum of 250 students ages 14 through 18. He cited the example of the Arcadia campus, which he said had no problems in twelve years of operations. Clarke also brought in consultants who analyzed the Palm Street site for neighbors’ concerns, which he said were “traffic, noise, and property values.”
Clarke and his consultants told the committee that they would be able to mitigate most of the concerns of the neighborhood, with small buses to bring in students and no bells to mark change of periods nor outdoor physical education activities. They also said that projected noise levels did not exceed county standards, and that all evidence points to neighborhoods’ property values going up in the presence of a quality private school.
Clarke’s positive picture was countered by members of the Palm Street Area Residents Association (PSARA), many of whom were wearing red and holding copies of the red “No School on Palm” signs that are ubiquitous in the neighborhood. That organization was formed after the property’s previous owner, Sahag Mesrob Armenian Christian School, opened a 200 student school the day after Labor Day, 2008, without notifying the neighborhood nor securing the proper permits. The court ordered the school closed at the end of the school year in 2009.
An overflow crowd at the Altadena Community Center heard the town council’s land use committee unanimously reject the application for a school on Palm Street after an emotional meeting Tuesday night.
Pictured: the Palm Street school site.
The hearing was for a conditional use permit (CUP) for the Arroyo Pacific Academy, which operates a private school in Arcadia. Academy president Philip Clarke hopes to open another campus at the site at 183-205 E. Palm St., which has been a hotbed of neighborhood concern since another school opened there without permits in 2008. Estimates of the crowd attending Tuesday night’s meeting were between 150-185.
Academy: problems can be solved
Clarke told the committee that the Palm Street campus would start with 120 students, and planned for a maximum of 250 students ages 14 through 18. He cited the example of the Arcadia campus, which he said had no problems in twelve years of operations. Clarke also brought in consultants who analyzed the Palm Street site for neighbors’ concerns, which he said were “traffic, noise, and property values.”
Clarke and his consultants told the committee that they would be able to mitigate most of the concerns of the neighborhood, with small buses to bring in students and no bells to mark change of periods nor outdoor physical education activities. They also said that projected noise levels did not exceed county standards, and that all evidence points to neighborhoods’ property values going up in the presence of a quality private school.
Clarke’s positive picture was countered by members of the Palm Street Area Residents Association (PSARA), many of whom were wearing red and holding copies of the red “No School on Palm” signs that are ubiquitous in the neighborhood. That organization was formed after the property’s previous owner, Sahag Mesrob Armenian Christian School, opened a 200 student school the day after Labor Day, 2008, without notifying the neighborhood nor securing the proper permits. The court ordered the school closed at the end of the school year in 2009.