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Published on 07/21/1999 All articles from this issue

Miramonte gym hearing continued to July 27

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

The project meets or exceeds all city building codes. The applicants have modified the design in response to neighbor concerns. City staff and the planning commissioners recommend approval.

Still, the folks in the south Los Altos neighborhood of Altamead Drive are not happy.

First, they don't like the idea of a 14,500-square-foot multipurpose building going up behind them at Miramonte School, a private school run by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

"I assume the church community will be using it aggressively," said neighbor Guy Williams.

Second, they said they didn't know, until the last minute, that it was on the city council's agenda for July 13.

"Nobody was notified," said Martha DeBoni, a neighbor of the school. "I didn't hear until last night (July 12)."

The council told the standing-room only crowd that the item would be continued to its meeting next Tuesday.

The city notifies affected neighbors for planning commission hearings but not for city council meetings, said Larry Tong, planning director for Los Altos.

The project has been reviewed twice by the planning commission, said David Kornfield, a Los Altos city planner. In between meetings the applicants made many changes to the plans.

The project has 11 percent coverage on the school land vs. 30 percent that is allowed by code, said Greg Richmond, chairman of the Miramonte building committee.

The highest point of the roof is 26 feet vs. the 27 feet of two-story homes in the neighborhood, Richmond said.

The facility will allow "the whole school to meet inside in winter weather," said Ronna Sato, principal of the school. Now the 185 children at the K-8 school have "PE only in good weather," she said.

In the past few years, St. Simon Catholic school added a 17,000-square-foot multipurpose room, Richmond said.

At Miramonte, the new building would allow "some outdoor activities to move indoors and there would be less noise," Richmond said.

But neighbors are worried. They fear traffic and noise from nighttime and weekend activities.

"We are very concerned about how the building will be used," Williams said.

"Our biggest concern," DeBoni said, "is that it will be used not just for children but for Seventh-day Adventists from all around. We don't need another community building," she said, noting that the back entrance to Blach Intermediate School is across the street from Miramonte School.

"This school is not in line with our community," said Beverly Shengulet-Youlton.