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German School in Haviland Manor enrollment cap and entrance Special Permit request comes up November 1 at the Zoning Board of Appeals.
Haviland Manor to ask city to consider opening Roger Place, Nina Lane, Ellis Drive, Dreier Lane as North Street entrances to school if 800 North Street entrance tied to cap increase is rejected. Association also suggests IBM Property access be pursued.
Drafted Letter to Planning, Zoning Boards asks city not forget the "the safety issue."
Kudomoni-Kuni school proposal withdrawn because proposed science school off North Street does not fit definition of Japanese School Special Permit.
By John F. Bailey
CityLine: Battle Hill, October 27, 2000
The German School in Haviland Manor expects to have its twin proposals for an increase in student enrollment and proposed North Street entrance through 800 North Street put before the Zoning Board of Appeals November 1 for a possible final vote.
WPCNR has learned that the Haviland Manor Association which is opposed to the school increasing enrollment to 500 students (from the present 325), but backs the North Street entrance, was in the process of drafting a letter to various city agencies asking that the city not forget the safety issue on Partridge Road (where the entrance to the school is presently located), even if the cap increase is denied.
In the letter, the Haviland Manor Association will ask the city, in the event the cap increase is voted down by the Zoning Board, to require a Traffic Management Plan from the school which would limit the automobile traffic to and from the school by controlling who is permitted to drive to the campus.
The letter suggests the school refuse students the right to drive to campus, and require parents of students to send their children by bus, and not drop them off. It is the Haviland Manor Association contention in its letter that the German School has never aggressively pursued a vehicle access policy with its parent population.
The Association also asks the city in the event the cap increase is denied, to examine the traffic relief that could be achieved by opening other residential streets off the East side of North Street onto the German School campus. Presently, the Association contends Roger Place, Nina Lane, Allan Drive and Dreier Lane all could be "opened" to the German School property to provide other entrances, relieving the traffic funnel affect that occurs on Partridge Road, and sharing the burden of traffic in the North Street corridor with the North Street Civic Association which strongly opposes any shifting of traffic flows onto North Street.
Another solution the Haviland Manor Association alleges has not been seriously examined by the German School is access through the IBM Corporation parking lot on the South southeast corner of the German School Campus.
The letter also questions the validity of traffic estimates the German School includes in its Draft Environmental Impact Statement that will be generated by the increase in cap from 375 students to 500 as proposed in the amendment to their Special Permit. The letter reports that no accurate car count has been taken of the present count, due to City Traffic Department observation of parents dropping off students when traffic counters were in place, at points where the cars would not be counted by the counters stretched across Partridge Road. The letter alleges that projected increase in traffic from an increased cap are therefore suspect and could result in larger numbers of private car drop-offs than anticipated.
The German School has suggested converting the Kempner home at 800 North Street into school administrative offices, and laying a two lane road through the property to the Haviland Manor campus of the German School. This proposal would relieve all traffic on Partridge Road, shifting it all to North Street, which has aroused bitter opposition from the North Street Civic Association.
The purpose of the Haviland Manor Association letter is to focus the city attention on the safety issue that exists every day on Partridge Road, and that the proposal up at the Zoning Board of Appeals Wednesday is not just about a cap increase or quality of the neighborhoods, but about safety. The letter calls upon the city departments to work toward a solution by forcing the German School to manage their parent traffic better through opening the residential roads mentioned or accessing the IBM property.
The German School has stated that any acquisition of the Kempner property and subsequent construction of the entrance drive from within Haviland Manor through the Kempner property to North Street will not be executed if the cap increase is not approved.
WPCNR has learned that the Kudomoni-Kuni School will not pursue its plan to build a science and nature school at 1000 North Street. According to the Planning Department the school which is a nursery school was planning to operate a different type of school (a science facility) on the property instead of an elementary school, which is what their Special Permit calls for. The Planning Department also advised that the City Master Plan calls for limiting commercial and institutional growth in the North Street, Haviland Manor part of town.
It is also expected that Omnipoint will report back to the Zoning Board of Appeals on Fenway Golf Club's willingness to relocate a cell tower deeper into its golf course property within Scarsdale, as strongly requested by the Planning Board.
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