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Published on 06/16/1999 All articles from this issue

PC OKs gym over neighborhood objections

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

In spite of strong neighborhood objection, the Los Altos Planning Commission approved plans for a 14,540-square-foot multipurpose gym for Miramonte School at its June 3 meeting.

"I think it's a good proposal," said Penny Lave, a planning commissioner and former mayor of Los Altos. "They've met all the requirements that the planning commission gave them."

The private school, owned and operated by the Central Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is located in south Los Altos, across the street from the back entrance to Blach Intermediate School. This past school year 185 children attended grades K-8.

"I've always dreamed of the day all of our parents and all of our kids could sit in one place indoors, together," said Ronna Sato, 40, principal of the school. A teacher at the school for 13 years, this is her first year as principal.

Plans include a gym with a high school regulation-size basketball court, two regulation-size volleyball courts, a music room, music practice rooms, a kitchen and two rooms for meetings or classes.

Currently the school holds its talent shows and back-to-school nights outside on the school grounds, Sato said, where you "kind of have to shout to be heard." The school goes off-site for its Christmas program and other events where "we all are together," Sato said.

Also, on rainy days, "there's no place for the kids to play," Sato said.

Neighbors didn't like what they saw and heard about the project when it came to the planning commission in March.

One called it a "Cosco building." Others compared it to the Titanic, because of its long, blank back wall with round, high porthole-type windows.

Following the March meeting, the neighbors formed the Altamead Neighborhood Association. They presented a petition to the city on May 17, signed by 121 residents from eight neighboring streets, objecting to several aspects of the project.

They didn't like the design, and called the multipurpose room "an industrial-type, warehouse-like monster building," in a statement written by Nancy Saunders. She said it created a "perceived threat to the neighborhood character."

Sato said the original plans were "kind of stark, the back wall one flat wall 27 feet high."

But in response to these concerns, there's been a redesign. "We've changed the roof line to look more like a home than a warehouse," Sato said.

The building is now set back 50 feet from the rear property line, instead of the initial plans calling for a 35-foot setback.

The highest point of the building, 26 feet, is now 68 feet from the nearest neighbor's fence.

The school may not use that 50-foot piece of land behind the multipurpose room "for any activities," Sato said.

They will be planting flowering plum trees that "would grow to the height of the building and not create shadows in the neighbor's back yard," Sato said.

City staff called the plants "a good choice" for screening the back of the building.