NORTH : FULLERTON : Rosary High School Gymnasium OKd

Despite concerns from neighbors about noise and traffic, the City Council has given the go-ahead for Rosary High School to build a gymnasium on the east side of the school.

Although the city Planning Commission approved the 14,000-square-foot gym and multipurpose building in September, about a dozen people who live near the school on North Acacia Avenue held up the project through appeals to the City Council.

After hearing three hours of complaints from residents and pleas for support from high school students, teachers and administrators, the council voted unanimously this week to allow construction of the building.

Rosary is a private Catholic girls school about half a mile west of Cal State Fullerton.

Complaints from residents focused on traffic and noise. If the gymnasium and multipurpose room were to be built, more people would be drawn to the school, residents reasoned.

Walter Dardenne-Ankringa, 43, who lives near the school on Mountain View Place, charged that the school was given preferential treatment because it was run by a church.

“This isn’t about churches or schools or motherhood, it’s about following the (city) code,” he told the council.

School officials said the gymnasium will cut down on noise because basketball and volleyball games will be moved indoors.

After approving the building, the council asked the school to work with neighbors and the city’s Transportation and Circulation Commission to look for solutions to the traffic problems.