A Good Site or a Source of Problems?

A proposal to build a Jewish Orthodox boarding school for 150 boys ages 14 and 15 on Mureau Road in Calabasas has met with protest since residents in the neighboring gated community of Mountain View Estates heard of the plans.

Homeowners say they were left out of the process and that the school, which had 10 students last year, will increase traffic on the rural road. Officials of Mesivta of Greater Los Angeles say they did not intentionally ignore residents and are considering potential problems.

MICHAEL BAKER asked a homeowner association member and the rabbi who directs the school about the proposed facility’s impacts.

MARK LEVINSON, member, Community Liaison Committee of Mountain View Estates Homeowners Assn.

We find ourselves in a curious position of pointing out that there are real risks to the people who will be on the site, to the students.

The traffic issues are substantial because the Round Meadow School is approximately half a mile away from the Mountain View community. There are approximately 250 to 300 children who attend Round Meadow daily, and any tie-ups along Mureau Road during construction or after construction would make hundreds of children late to school. The alternative route would require perhaps a two to three-mile detour.

And there is also a fire danger. This proposed site has one road in and out, so in the event of a fire, the danger to the students as well as the staff is real and it is great. They would not be able to be evacuated easily.

This project in so many respects is simply not well thought-out. Issues that relate to the site--the drainage, the fire protection, the environmental impact, the process of construction--simply haven’t been thought out.

Mountain View, in raising these issues, has been unfairly characterized as being uninterested in having the school nearby.

In its effort to reach out to the Mesivta and help them solve the problem of having a poor site for the use, Mountain View has proposed an idea that would take a portion of Mountain View’s own land and make it available to the school. This land is located on the four-lane portion of Mureau Road where there is sewer available and existing structures are compatible.

We want to see this project complete, but you can’t take a gallon of milk and pour it into a teacup.

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SHLOMO GOTTESMAN, director, Mesivta of Greater Los Angeles Jewish Orthodox boarding school

The type of school that we opened in September 1997 is abundant throughout the United States--in the East, Northeast, Midwest. The West Coast unfortunately has not yet had such a school.

We wanted a place that was safe and were looking for a place where we would remain as un-obstructive as possible.

So we looked into Calabasas and we saw this eight-acre property hidden behind the road . . . . The kids could be in a rural atmosphere, get a strong education, be away from the crime of the city and we’d be able to create our own environment.

We were not expecting any opposition. We met with the city of Calabasas and the city of Hidden Hills. Shortly before the hearing process, we found out that the community of Mountain View was a separate entity and needed to be dealt with separately. I offered to meet with them and show them exactly what was going on.

Throughout this process, it has become clear to me that Mountain View has taken it very personally that they had not been consulted directly, when no malice was intended.

As for traffic problems, the boys don’t own cars. We actually hired a traffic consultant to do a study. The traffic count that came out with 150 students was a maximum of 36 cars a day. On a road that has approximately 6,000 cars a day it didn’t seem that 36 was much of an additional traffic concern.

As for the questions dealing with drainage, traffic, wildlife and such, those aren’t problems that we are increasing. Because we’re moving in there, because we have to get the proper grading and building permits, those problems will be taken care of through the natural chain of events.

They mentioned the idea of a land swap, so to speak, and we asked our consultant to look into it. We’d like to try to be open-minded, but it’s not the type of idea that can be dealt with overnight. That’s something it will take months for us to know.