Jewish High School Plan Draws Neighbors’ Protests

If built, it would be the first Reform-sponsored Jewish high school in the United States, its proponents say, offering students a sound background in Jewish culture and religion in an environment free of the strictures found in Orthodox schools.

But Stephen S. Wise Temple High School, proposed for a 10-acre parcel off Mulholland Drive west of the San Diego Freeway, won’t be built without a battle.

Many of the school’s potential neighbors say it would add to notorious hillside traffic jams caused by rush-hour motorists taking shortcuts over the Santa Monica Mountains, and would impede already slow responses by emergency vehicles. The temple now operates an elementary and middle school on Stephen S. Wise Drive, off Mulholland Drive, east of the San Diego Freeway.

But temple officials and neighbors supporting the new school argue that steps can be taken to lessen the effect of traffic. And they say there are no feasible alternatives to the Mulholland Drive site.

Conditionally approved by a city zoning administrator in July, the project has been challenged by a Bel-Air property owners group that appealed the decision to the Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals. A hearing is set for Sept. 14. Debate over the proposed 650-student school includes voices from both sides of the Santa Monica Mountains.

In fact, disagreements between board members of an Encino property owners association have prevented the group from taking an official stance on the project.

“Knowing that there is a fire and police problem, it is beyond my comprehension that the temple would pursue the site they have in mind,” said Margery Grossman, a board member of the Encino Property Owners Assn. “It puts the kids in danger.”

But fellow board member Robert Glushon, who described debate over the school as “heated and divisive,” said while the project will generate more traffic, its benefit to the community must also be weighed.

“When homeowners get to the point of opposing schools based on the traffic they’ll generate, we need to rethink our priorities,” he said. “The people who are opposing this are really thinking of themselves.”

The school would be built in two phases. First, temporary modular buildings including 10 classrooms, a library and restrooms would be installed on the site that is now covered with brush and small trees. Enrollment would be limited to 165 students. The second phase, slated for 1997, would involve construction of the three-story, 38-classroom main building, a 600-seat auditorium and performing arts center, and 20,000-square-foot gymnasium and cafeteria.

Outdoor walkways and plazas would connect the three buildings, which would be terraced down the hillside from Mulholland to the south and southwest. A 72,000-square-foot track and athletic field would occupy the western half of the site.

Educators and religious leaders, including the regional director of the Reform movement, say the demand for a high school for students who are Jewish, but not Orthodox, is great.

“There is an overwhelming need for the existence of a Jewish high school, which is responsive to the needs of non-Orthodox members of the Jewish community,” wrote Rabbi Lennard R. Thal in a letter soliciting support for the project.

Rabbi Isaiah Zeldin, who proposes the school, said Stephen S. Wise High School would offer a destination for Reform and Conservative Jewish students coming from some 15 primary schools throughout Los Angeles.

“We want to produce a cadre of lay people who are knowledgeable in Jewish culture,” Zeldin said. “But we don’t indoctrinate them; we give them choices.”

Still, the prospect of increased traffic remains a sticking point with many Bel-Air and Encino Hills neighbors who oppose the project.

Hillside residents have long complained that they have been held hostage in their own driveways for as long as 15 minutes waiting for a break in the continuous lines that form on several hillside streets, including Mulholland Drive, during the morning and afternoon rush hours.

A 1991 city Department of Transportation study found that 69% of the morning rush-hour trips through the area are made by motorists using shortcuts over the Santa Monica Mountains. On Calneva Drive, which connects Hayvenhurst Avenue to Mulholland Drive, the study found that between 1,000 and 1,200 cars per hour used the route to avoid the congested interchange between the Ventura and San Diego freeways.

“Enough is enough,” said Barbara Doorman, who appealed the zoning administrator’s decision on behalf of the Bel-Air Skycrest Property Owners Assn. “Most of us have lived here for 20 years and haven’t complained, but this is just not acceptable.”

Doorman argued that the area has already been overdeveloped with schools, churches and government buildings in the area, and that the high school would only serve a privileged few. Backers said tuition is projected at about $9,000 per year.

Doorman also pointed to a much smaller project that was turned down at the site in 1983, saying that the Wise Temple is being allowed to do things others were not.

“Why is it that they should be able to put up temporary trailers along Mulholland Drive?” Doorman asked. “Mulholland Drive belongs to the entire city. Property owners wouldn’t be able to do something like this.”

The project was approved by zoning officials with an exhaustive list of conditions attached, including several street improvements designed to lessen the effect of traffic created by the school.

School officials were ordered to help install the Department of Transportation’s Automated Traffic Surveillance System and Control at key intersections, and to widen and install turn lanes in key locations to help accommodate the increased traffic.

School officials said they would limit access to the school to Mulholland Drive, and parking would be limited to one of two parking lots in West Los Angeles or the San Fernando Valley, with bus service to the campus. School would begin at 7:30 a.m. to avoid 7:45 to 8 a.m. peak traffic hours.

But neighbors argue that there is no guarantee that the safeguards will be enacted, and they worry that even if they are, they may not work.

“I don’t think the temple is really going to have any control of what goes on after school hours,” said Grossman of the Encino property owners. “And I think the traffic could become devastating, no matter what anybody says.”

But a spokeswoman for Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the area and whose vote will be crucial if the project goes before the City Council, said that although Braude has met with residents about the traffic problems, there is little question the project will be approved.

“Ultimately, an approval is going to occur,” said Braude planning deputy Cindy Miscikowski. “It’s just a question of how it’s conditioned.”