Hermosa Beach About Town
North School EIR meeting
The Hermosa Beach City School District will hold a meeting to discuss and take comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the reconstruction of North School this Monday evening. The draft EIR, released earlier this month, is intended to alert the public to possible environmental impacts associated with the North School project. The district will take oral and written comments at the meeting. Comments may also be submitted in writing until 4 p.m. on Jan. 2.
North School operated as a neighborhood school for decades before the district closed it in the late 1980s due to declining enrollment. In recent years, with the district’s two campuses at Hermosa View and Hermosa Valley suffering from overcrowding, reopening North was suggested as a possible solution. Last summer, Hermosa voters passed Measure S, a bond measure that will ultimately raised $59 million.
The district is currently facing a lawsuit from Hermosa residents over Measure S and the potential reconstruction of North. Many of the issues likely to come up during the review of the EIR, including impacts on neighborhood traffic and North’s status as a historic resource, were also topics of controversy during the campaign over Measure S. Backers of the lawsuit have filed petitions with the California Office of Historic Preservation to have the school designated as historically significant.
A majority of Measure S funds will go toward reopening North, which will be completely rebuilt under district plans. A previous tenant, Children’s Journey preschool, left over the summer, and the campus is now ringed with construction fencing. No work on the site has begun, and the district has said that the fencing is a safety measure.
If the EIR is approved and the school board sanctions the project, the district plans for North to serve third- and fourth-graders, in part out of a desire to mitigate traffic. The district hopes more students will walk or bike there than if the campus were to serve kindergarten through second grade, as was originally planned.
Plans for the North campus from architect SVA indicate a focus on sustainable design. The district is aiming for North to be a “zero-net energy” school, meaning it creates at least as much energy from on-site renewables as it consumes. The push for innovative design is part of the reason why officials have advocated rebuilding the school instead of reusing existing facilities.
The meeting will take place in City Council Chambers at 7 p.m. Written comments may be submitted to district business manager Angela Jones by email at ajones@hbcsd.org. The document is available online in its entirety on the district’s website.