Report Says Miraleste Closure Will Clog Streets

A long-awaited environmental study of school closures on the Palos Verdes Peninsula concludes that traffic congestion on stretches of several crowded roadways will grow worse if Miraleste High School is closed.

The draft study was done by the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District in response to a court order handed down last year by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Miriam Vogel.

The judge prohibited the district from shutting down Miraleste until an environmental impact report was completed on the proposed closing, as well as recent closures throughout the district. Since 1980, the district has closed five elementary and two intermediate schools because of declining enrollment.

Vogel’s ruling was a victory for the East Peninsula Educational Council, a parents’ group that has fought to keep Miraleste open despite the district’s 1987 decision to close the east side school because of declining enrollment. While the parents’ group has long said the report would bolster its position, district officials have maintained that it would have no real effect on the district’s decision to close the school.

Public Hearing

The public has 45 days to comment on the report, which was prepared by the Los Angeles firm of Michael Brandman Associates Inc. Copies are available for public review at the district’s headquarters and at local libraries and city halls. A hearing on the report will be held Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at the school district’s headquarters.

After the hearing is held and additional comments gathered, a final report will be prepared. Whatever the final report concludes, however, the parents’ group can challenge it before Vogel.

Under state law, school districts are not required to prepare environmental reports when they decide to close a school. Such reports are usually reserved for housing or other major construction activities.

Vogel ruled, however, that such a report was necessary because the proposal, coupled with the other closures, constituted a “cumulative impact.”

“For projects such as this type, (environment reports) are unusual,” Thomas Smith, president of Brandman Associates said in an interview. “There is not a lot of guidance to look to.”

The report reaches no firm conclusion on how past closures relate to Miraleste. Although earlier closures have probably had an impact on traffic patterns on the peninsula because some students have had to travel farther to school, it is difficult to determine the relevance of those changes on Miraleste, the report concluded.

Parking Shortage

But the report found that if the 758-student school is closed, traffic volume would grow worse on already congested portions of Palos Verdes Drive North and Palos Verdes Drive West.

The report also states that the school’s closure would exacerbate a student parking shortage that already exists at Rolling Hills High School and Palos Verdes High School on the west side. If Miraleste is closed and mitigation measures are not adopted, more students can be expected to park on streets, thereby creating a significant impact on local neighborhoods, the report states.

Several roadway improvements would be needed to reduce the effects of closing, according to the report. Those improvements should include adding one traffic lane in each direction on Palos Verdes Drive North from Palos Verdes Drive East to Silver Spur Road, and widening Palos Verdes Drive North at the intersections of Crenshaw and Hawthorne boulevards. The latter would provide more capacity for east-west traffic.

The report recommends that the district help establish a bus or ride-share program to reduce the number of vehicle trips on local roads. Also, the school district should determine if additional off-street student parking can be made available at Rolling Hills and Palos Verdes high schools, according to the report.

In-Depth Review

School Supt. Jack Price said the draft report will undergo an in-depth review. If the final report is similar to the draft, the district should probably be able to follow through on its recommendation to close the school, he said. Price and other top district officials have long predicted that closing Miraleste would not prove disruptive from an environmental or other standpoint.

Debbie Bright, an environmental consultant hired by the parents’ group, said she had not had time to adequately study the report. However, she said that after quickly glancing at it, she is concerned that its focus may be too narrow.

“The focus seems to be a little bit skewed toward one school closure as opposed to all school closures,” Bright said.

Dawn Henry, a member of the parents’ group, criticized the report as being too limited. For example, she said, it does not address the fact that a large number of east side residents use Miraleste as a focal point for numerous social and recreational activities.

“I think it was very limited and poorly done,” Henry said.