City, School District To Address Safety Concerns At North School

From The City of Hermosa Beach: The City of Hermosa Beach and the Hermosa Beach City School District announced today that they have entered into an agreement to provide additional time to resolve traffic, transportation and safety concerns at North School without causing delays in the school’s construction.

The “tolling agreement” requires the City and District to work diligently to reach a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on transportation, traffic and safety concerns.

“We want the best facilities for Hermosa Beach students, and we have provided unanimous and consistent support for the District’s modernization plans and the reconstruction of North School,” said Hermosa Beach Mayor Stacey Armato. “The City’s obligation is to protect public safety, and with this agreement, we can work in collaboration with the District to refine plans for the neighboring streets and public property that will protect public safety while the District moves forward with school construction.”

Hermosa Beach City School District Board President Douglas Gardner said he is optimistic about being able to resolve these issues and looks forward to working with the City on an MOU.

“We are also committed to arriving at a mutually acceptable neighborhood traffic mitigation plan so that North School operates as efficiently and as safely as possible,” he said. “The District has always been vested in the process of working with the City, and as we’ve gone through the EIR and other processes related to North School, we have worked extensively on City concerns and incorporated them into the EIR and into the project where we can.”

Under state law, any legal challenges to the North School Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) had to be filed by Monday, February 11. The tolling agreement delays that deadline only for the City by allowing the City to challenge the FEIR until Feb. 28 – or until five days after the City receives notice of a lawsuit filed by any others against the District. The City and District staff are scheduled to meet on Tuesday, February 12, to begin discussing a proposed MOU, which is currently being drafted by City staff.

“We are confident we can reach a mutually agreeable MOU, and we thank School Board President Gardner for his leadership and the members of the Board for agreeing to this additional time to resolve these matters,” said Mayor Armato.

Under the agreement, the City and the District will address drop-off and pick-up procedures at North School, pedestrian and vehicle travel routes, and potential additional off-site drop-off locations. The agreement also states that the MOU must be specific about how the City and District will share the costs of any agreed upon resolutions and that the discussions will not change the approved plan for the school’s configuration or any other non-traffic related aspects of the North School Project.

North School is expected to serve between 300 and 400 students, with a maximum capacity of 510 students. The school is located on narrow residential streets, and the proposed project designates two drop-off and pick-up areas for students. In the FEIR, the District acknowledged that up to 55% of North School students would likely be dropped off and picked up at other sites, most of which are anticipated to be located on City property or rights of way.

Among the matters to be addressed, the City sought the tolling agreement to allow continued work with the District to refine plans for protecting the safety of students and the public at those alternate locations. It is also seeking to determine what improvements are needed for students to travel safely between those alternate locations and the school site, and what accommodations are needed to serve students with disabilities at those alternate sites.

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