Meeting looks at expansion plans for Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy
Plans to expand the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy campus, already years in the making, took a tentative step forward Monday as La Cañada’s Planning Department held a public scoping meeting inviting community input into an upcoming environmental review.
The meeting is the first step in preparing an environmental impact report for the work, which will include construction of a multi-level parking structure and outdoor athletic area as well as the expansion of a newly built performing arts center and existing high school building.
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All told, the plan comprises an increase of more than 116,057 square feet, although significant portions of the expansion are stacked in multiple stories and set partially underground to reduce visual impact, said FSHA Chief Financial Officer Carmella Grahn, who attended Monday’s meeting to field questions from the public.
Grahn said school officials are looking forward to moving ahead with plans after resolving the individual and collective concerns of area neighbors, some of whom organized as Protect LCF in 2012 to officially oppose the master plan expansion when it came before the city.
Since then, the two parties have worked out a settlement agreement addressing traffic and the number of events on campus at which alcohol is served, among other issues. Members of Protect LCF partnered with school leaders to issue a Feb. 16 release stating their conditional support for the project.
“We’re just really hopeful this time around the process will go very smoothly,” Grahn said Monday. “Like with anything, if everybody puts their heads together you can get great outcomes.”
Attesting to the newly cleared air around the Flintridge campus, neighbor Bruce Feng came to Monday’s scoping meeting with a positive outlook and a list of items he hoped might be considered during the city’s review process.
A view of Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, photographed on Friday, Aug. 10, 2012.
The longtime homeowner and former FSHA parent wanted to make sure the back wall of a 99,000-square-foot, semi-subterranean parking structure proposed in FSHA’s plan didn’t completely obstruct the view from his Palmerstone Drive home.
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“We like the school and all that, but we still need to ask for some things,” Feng said. “It’s just a matter of understanding what they’re doing.”
Grahn and John Hrovat, FSHA parent and chair of the private school’s Master Plan Committee, made sure the few people who attended left feeling heard and promised to continue their door-knocking campaign to see that all homeowners in the vicinity are aware of the developments.
Deputy Director of Community Development Susan Koleda explained the city will accept comments from the public wishing to address the reach and scope of the environmental impact report through April 4.
After that, consultants will review several aspects of the expansion and its effects on the surrounding community and present findings in a draft environmental report that will be submitted for a 45-day public comment period and be the subject of at least one public workshop or Planning Commission meeting.
Public comments and questions gathered will be addressed in a final EIR that could possibly go before the city’s Planning Commission and then City Council for approval by the end of the year, Koleda said.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
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