Marymount Trades Limit on Enrollment for OK to Expand

Marymount College agreed Tuesday to limit its enrollment in exchange for permission from Rancho Palos Verdes officials to expand campus facilities.

The college’s willingness to restrict enrollment comes after years of complaints by residents over traffic and other problems generated by the increasing number of students taking classes.

The two-year private college, which is in a residential area of homes with spectacular ocean and harbor views, has fought previous efforts by the city to limit enrollment.

“We switched gears a little bit,” Jim Reeves, the college’s dean of administration, said. “The hue and cry was for some cap on our enrollment.”

Reeves said the agreement must be ratified by the college’s board of trustees, which will meet March 10.

City planners had proposed an enrollment limit of 750 full- and part-time students after the college asked to build a new student services building and expand a student lounge and snack bar facility. In recent weeks, some residents living near the college had contacted City Hall or signed petitions saying they supported the limit.

Tuesday, after suggestions by college officials, planning commissioners voted 3 to 1 to limit enrollment to 750 full-time students each semester beginning in the fall. To allow for fluctuations caused by students who, for example, may drop out or transfer in from another school, commissioners said they would allow the student count to vary by 3% in any given semester.

Commissioners voted to limit part-time enrollment to 20 students a semester. No limit was set on the number of students in the college’s weekend classes.

The college, which has 726 full-time and 26 part-time students now, can appeal to city officials in the future to lift the limit.

“I felt it was a very generous agreement on the part of the school,” Planning Commission Chairman Bob McNulty said. “I think the neighbors were concerned that the school was going to escalate into thousands of more students.”

Commissioner Susan Brooks, the only one to vote against the restriction, said she did so because she opposed allowing enrollment to fluctuate by 3% annually. However, she called the limit that was passed a “positive step because it encourages peaceful coexistence” between residents and the college.

Commissioner Charles Hotchkiss abstained from voting because his wife teaches at the school.

Several residents who live near the college applauded its willingness to limit enrollment as a positive step toward establishing a better relationship with its neighbors. In the past, they said, the college has sometimes been insensitive to their concerns over traffic and noise.

Under the agreement approved by the planning commissioners, the college must provide at least 53 off-street parking spaces to compensate for any spaces lost to the expansion.

“We’re not trying to eliminate the school,” said Earle Casler Jr., president of the Mira-Catalina Homeowners Assn. “. . . We just feel our input should be heard and given weight in the planning of the school.”

Marymount moved to the former high school site on Palos Verdes Drive East in 1975. At the time, the college was struggling financially and had only 116 students.

However, by the late 1970s, enrollment had grown to nearly 300 students and continued to grow steadily into the 1980s. During the past three years, enrollment has leveled off, and school officials do not anticipate enrollment to climb much at any time soon, Reeves said.

To accommodate its past growth, the college needs to expand its food services and add a new building for a host of services, including faculty offices, a bookstore and health center, he said, adding that the college has ample classroom space.

Besides limiting enrollment, planning commissioners also voted to require the school to submit a new plan for outdoor lighting. Some residents have complained that the school’s outdoor lights shine into their back yards and windows.

Construction is expected to begin this spring.