Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Game of Pick Up: Class dismissals at Gardner Academy in Willow Glen are staggered between 3 and 3:30 p.m. most days because of heavy traffic congestion from the parents and school buses picking up students. The area's Strong Neighborhoods Initiative committee is considering a turn-around driveway on the campus.
Gardner wants more parking, safer spot to leave and retrieve students
SNI area community discusses school and new community center
By Kate Carter
Gardner Academy staff and the elementary school's nearby neighbors are working together to make the surrounding streets safer for residents, teachers and students.
The school is within the boundaries of the Gardner/Atlanta/Gregory Park area of the city's Strong Neighborhood Initiative and was the topic of some constructive discussion at the neighborhood committee's meeting with city officials last week.
Principal Nico Flores said the school needs more parking for its nearly 70 staff members and the parents of its nearly 700 students, as well as a better system for dropping students at the school and picking them up.
"My concern is safety at those two times of the day," Flores said.
Terry Bottomley, a consultant working with the committee on ideas for improving its neighborhoods, showed the group some possible solutions at its March 26 meeting at the Gardner Community Center.
He said a portion of the front of the school on Illinois Avenue could be turned into a half-circle driveway. The turn-around would allow parents to drive north on Illinois, turn in and drop their children off directly in the front of campus, and then continue around and turn back onto Illinois, he said. It would also give Gardner's seven or eight buses a better spot to collect and deliver children.
The turn-around could prevent children from running across Illinois Avenue's traffic to get to school, Bottomley said, as well as reduce congestion along the residential street which fills up with double-parked cars at the beginning and end of the school day.
The plan he proposed called for a turn-around that would fit between eight and 10 cars, or one or two buses. It would require that a portion of the school's field be paved over, as well. For the turn-around to accommodate more cars or buses, more of the field would have to be paved, he said.
Flores said he thought the idea was interesting, but that the community should be brought into the discussion.
"It's a very important issue, not only for the school, but for the community," Flores said. "Kids are not the only ones that use the property."
Other meeting participants suggested that a turn-around be used only for parents and that buses use a curbside drop-off location. Others recommended that parking be restricted in areas in front of the school, during drop-off and pick-up hours.
Bottomley said he would look into all the possibilities, but cautioned that a turn-around project "could take a while," because of the necessary coordination with both the city and the San Jose Unified School District.
To address the school's need for more parking, Bottomley suggested turning a poorly lit and underused portion of W. William Street, north of Gardner's campus, into a one-way street and adding angled parking spaces. He said that, with lighting and landscaping, this plan would cost about $200,000 and would only provide between eight and 10 more spaces for staff and parents to park. He recommended the idea, however, because he said it would give "purpose" to an area that is often used for dumping trash or visited by transients.
His other ideas for the street included closing it and turning it into a play area for the school children, which would cost about $475,000, or just adding more lighting and restriping the existing parking places, which would cost about $100,000.
"The need is parking," said Flores, who preferred making W. William Street a one-way street. He said the plan would allow buses and cars to circulate around the school in one direction and give parents more places to park and pick up their children.
Other meeting attendees also liked the plan, especially its provisions for increased lighting.
"We don't want to give up lighting under any circumstances," neighbor Dan Erceg said.
The group also discussed closing that portion of the street when the school was closed. Police Sgt. Bruce Unger said closing the street would increase the area's safety. But resident Norma Mendez said she felt less secure with a fence there and said increased police patrol would do more to make the area safer.
City officials said they would find out if closing the street was even a possibility.
Representatives from Sugimura and Associates, who are the architects for the planned new Gardner Community Center, presented their initial proposals at the meeting in a preview of what they will be presenting at a neighborhood meeting this week.
The proposed new 12,000-square-foot center would replace the existing 5,000-square-foot center. The architects' ideas included moving the center from its site west of Biebrach Park to be closer to the pool on the east side.
While that location would be more convenient and keep the restrooms and all the activities together in one place, it would be further from the elementary school, which is now just across the street.
The architects also said that the move could cost more than allowed by the project's budget of $5.3 million of Measure P bond money.
Other ideas included leaving the center on its current site and moving some of the other activities areas such as the tennis courts nearer to it. Resident Debbie Palmer also asked if it would be possible to move the pool nearer the center.
The architects and city parks, recreation and neighborhood services department staff said the plans would be discussed further and more feedback received at the April 4 meeting.
Discussion on design guidelines for additions to existing single-family homes was held for next month's meeting. City planner Anastazia Aziz said at the meeting that she would bring a copy of the city's design review ordinance guidelines that the group could choose to include in their neighborhood plan.
In related news, the city council last week approved a contract to begin work to reseal about 70 miles of streets in the city's SNI areas, including streets in the Gardner and Atlanta neighborhoods.
Jim Leitner, senior civil engineer for the department of streets and traffic, said the city is accelerating street repair projects in the SNI areas.
"We're accelerating work that normally we would've planned to do in the next six years into the next two years," he said. "The city made a commitment for SNI areas, to accelerate local street repairs, to give them a jump-start."
Leitner said the city is using approximately $8.5 million of state money to do the increased amount of street work.
He said a number of streets in the two neighborhoods will have preparatory work done beginning this June to fix damaged areas. Then the streets will be resealed after the city council approves a new contract. If streets need more work, such as resurfacing, rehabilitation or reconstruction, those will be referred to the public works department for the work, he said.
Leitner added that streets scheduled to receive the resealing will be given white marks.
Scheduled repairs to streets in the Gregory Park neighborhood were completed in the last four years, he said, and won't be scheduled again until the next 10-year cycle of street repairs.
Leitner also said that streets and traffic officials recommended three Gardner-area streets to be reconstructed within the year, using $1 million set aside by Mayor Ron Gonzales. The streets include Spencer Avenue between W. Virginia Avenue and Brown Street, Atlanta Avenue between Prevost Street and Highway 87 and Mills Court off of Atlanta Avenue. Public works officials will decide if those streets are reconstructed, he said.
"It's really a struggle to try to identify which ones we're going to do," Leitner said.
The next Gardner/Atlanta/Gregory Park SNI meeting is scheduled for April 23, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Gardner Community Center at 520 W. Virginia Ave. Police officers will be available to discuss neighbors' concerns and food will be provided at 6:30 p.m.
The Gardner Community Center and Biebrach Park master plan workshop is scheduled for April 4, from 7 to 9 n p.m. at the Gardner Academy multipurpose room at 502 Illinois Ave. Food will be provided, beginning at 6:30 p.m. For more information in English, call Gary Okazaki at 408.265.7301. For more information in Spanish, call Tony Torres at 408.279.1498.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
