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Council sends Hillbrook back to the planning commission
By Nathan R. Huff
Neighbors appealing a planning commission approval for Hillbrook School's new master plan were successful June 5, in persuading the council to send the project back to the planning commission.
Traffic, noise and safety issues were at the heart of the neighbors' concerns in the latest string of cases involving school issues in residential areas.
Neighbors on opposite sides of Hillbrook School showed up in force, butting heads over the possibility of opening the gate on Ann Arbor Drive to relieve traffic pressures on Marchmont Drive.
The planning commission had approved the school's new conditional-use permit (CUP), which the school sought as part of its new master plan. Many of the school's buildings now are not earthquake-safe and do not comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Traffic issues, a small part of the master plan, were only briefly addressed at the commission level, because the matter came up late in the evening.
But Ann Arbor Drive and Marchmont Drive residents brought the issue to the forefront at the council meeting, leading council members to vote to return the matter to the commission. They asked that the school work with neighbors before resubmitting its application, as well as pay for a traffic study of the area.
"While we have the CUP open, we need to mitigate some issues that clearly need to be mitigated," councilman Randy Attaway said following the meeting. Attaway added that although he did not believe opening access to the school through Ann Arbor Drive was the answer, the school could find other ways to improve the situation.
Mayor Steve Blanton, who likened Marchmont residents' suggestion of opening Ann Arbor Drive to San Francisco Airport's plan to reroute jets over the South Bay, also supported returning the school's CUP to the planning commission.
"I think we have, as oftentimes occurs, competing goods," Blanton said. "A school is a good thing; communities are good things, and oftentimes it's left to this body how to reconcile the two goods."
More than 20 residents representing both sides addressed the council. Marchmont residents complained of rude, speeding drivers, a lack of parking and late-night events at the school. Ann Arbor residents protested the idea of opening their street to school traffic, saying their neighborhood was already burdened with traffic and that Marchmont residents knew what they were getting into when they moved into the neighborhood.
The school, which has no plans to increase enrollment from the 315 students currently allowed, said it was ready to work with neighbors to find a solution. "We're willing to do basically anything the town, the council, the Ann Arbor and the Marchmont neighbors see fit to do," Jim Hilton, Hillbrook's business manager, said. Among the traffic-calming suggestions from neighbors and council members were a stronger, enforceable carpool program, mandatory busing and opening Ann Arbor Drive to pedestrian and bicycle access.
"By forcing a traffic study, now we've created a situation where we're dealing with facts rather than neighbors' opinions," councilman Jan Hutchins said.
Councilwoman Linda Lubeck was the only one to address the placement of new buildings planned for the school--the only reason the CUP was reopened in the first place. "All the master plan talks about is where the buildings are going to go," Lubeck said after the meeting. "I didn't see any discussion in the [planning commission] minutes on that at all."
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
