• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

District OKs Design, Funding for Monte Vista Parking Lot: DANVILLE: 391 Spaces Desperately Needed to Ease Crunch, School Officials Say; Neighbors Fear Noise, Traffic Will Accompany Students

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 09:02 CDT

By Linda Davis, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

May 9--The San Ramon Valley school district moved a step closer to improving the parking at Monte Vista High in Danville with approval of design and funding plans for a new school parking lot on Stone Valley Road.

About three-quarters of a 10-acre lot the district bought last year is to be converted to a 391-space overflow lot across from the high school. The school district hopes the lot -- fought by some nearby residents who feared added traffic and noise -- will be open by September.

The parking space is desperately needed, school officials counter. Monte Vista High is overflowing with students -- more than 2,500 this school year, with 2,700 students projected for September -- Trustee Joan Buchanan said.

High school students who live in the new Dougherty Valley developments will attend Monte Vista until a new high school opens there in 2007.

The district wanted to finalize plans now so grading can be done at the same time Davidon Homes will start moving dirt this summer to build 39 houses on 24 acres of the adjacent Humphrey Ranch property. During review of their development plan, Davidon officials said they could grade the school parcel during their own construction process.

The remaining 21/2 acres of the school parcel eventually will become a soccer field. The school district does not have the money to create the field right now, Buchanan said.

In 2000, the school district struck a deal with a previous developer for the Humphrey Ranch, and Davidon inherited the deal. The district would have had to pay $4.7 million for the 10-acre parcel at the bottom of Humphrey Ranch, but with the Davidon project's approval last October by the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors, the district got a $2 million rebate.

That $2 million has gone into the district's Measure A fund for renovations, upgrades and expansion of local schools, Trustee Greg Marvel said.

The school lot plan has three elements. About $400,000 will be spent for a traffic signal, curb cuts and related improvements, with Davidon paying 25 percent of the cost; the remainder will be paid by Measure A funds.

A buffer zone between the parking lot and adjacent neighbors will cost $1.1 million to create. That cost includes landscape, irrigation, drainage, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, utilities and fencing. School trustees may have Davidon do the work in lieu of their paying developer's fees to the school district.

"That way we don't have to use general fund money," Marvel said.

Developer fees likely will be used to pay the $950,000 to build the parking lot, he said.

There have been numerous public hearings and discussions in the past few years over the Humphrey Ranch plan. The approximate 100-acre ranch land parcel used to house an equestrian staging area and provided a rustic buffer between housing developments. Nearby neighbors at first objected to the impacts of a housing development on the land, then later they protested more vigorously to the school parking lot they said would generate noise and litter and cause traffic hazards for students crossing Stone Valley Road.

"Some people won't be happy with (the lot), but it gets a whole bunch of cars off the street," Marvel said. "It is very dangerous along Stone Valley. At least kids won't be parking a mile away and walking down the road.

"It will always be a bit of a mess. (School parking) was never designed for the kind of volume we are experiencing."

Buchanan said the lot will also serve as additional parking in school off-hours for such things as the summer concerts in Oak Hill Park adjacent to the high school.

The school board voted 4-1 in late April, with trustee Nancy Petsuch dissenting, to approve the parking lot plan.

Linda Davis covers Danville and Alamo. Reach her at ldavis@cctimes.com or 925-743-2218.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)

More News in this Category