Boarding School Plan to Be Discussed Today

Los Angeles County’s Regional Planning Commission will hold a public hearing today about a proposed boarding school whose construction would uproot about two dozen oak trees in Calabasas, said Julie Moore, a county case planner.

Mesivta of Greater Los Angeles, the applicant for the school’s zoning permits, wants to build a school with dormitories and staff residences on an 8 1/2-acre site at 25115 Mureau Road, Moore said. The hilly property is speckled with oak trees and two streams.

The proposed Jewish Orthodox boys’ school would eventually serve 150 students, said the school’s director, Rabbi Shlomo Gottesman. Mesivta requested a permit for less than required on-site parking because the boys will not be allowed to have cars, Gottesman said. In the past year, 10 boys attended the school, which presently operates in two old homes on the site. Those will be demolished after the new facilities are built.

Moore said the county has received one letter of opposition to the plan from the Mountain View Estates Homeowners Assn. The letter, sent by the group’s attorneys, says that proposed school is “out of character and scale” to the surrounding rural and residential area. It also requests that the planning commission require an environmental-impact report on the project.

“The entrance to our property is 1,000 feet away from the entrance to their property,” Gottesman said. “I’m not really 100% clear on how we would be affecting them.”

The city of Calabasas has voiced some of the same concerns as the homeowners group.

“It’s way too large for the area,” said Steve Craig, the city’s environmental coordinator. Craig said the plan also conflicts with a joint project of Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills and Westlake Village to create a network of bikeways in the area.

Today’s planning commission meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at 320 W. Temple St., Room 150, in Los Angeles.