March 31 Planning Commission Meeting

The Rancho Palos Verdes Planning Commission began its continued hearing concerning the Marymount College Facilities Expansion Project on March 31 and it finally ended at about 30 minutes past midnight on April 1, 2009.

Talk about a real April Fool's joke.

There was a great deal of comments, questions, answers, and discussion that put members of the audience to sleep.

Here are some of the basics I gleaned from the meeting.

Marymount uses a coordinator or orchestrator for their supporters before and during the meeting.

I should think that there would be more supporters that don't need to be coached or facilitated, but I guess they feel more comfortable having a ring mistress dealing on their side.

Every seat, except one was reserved for either supporters of Marymount or supporters of CCC/ME, the main opposition group to the college's plans.

I took the only seat not reserved. I guess I was 'the public' at the meeting.

The next two meetings by the Planning Commission scheduled to deal with the continuance of the hearing is on April 14 and May 26.

It is now expected that "Staff" will prepare the resolutions and necessary documentation dealing with the certification of the EIR by the Planning Commission and the rest of the legal documents required to be approved of by the Planning Commission.

It seems that the first item to be voted on is certification of the EIR. At this time it appears that at least three of the four members of the Planning Commission allowed to vote on the matters are ready to vote to certify the EIR.

One member of the Planning Commission is interested in having a large amount of foliage planted on the southern side of the campus to hide the views of the dorms from below the campus.

I got the feeling that there are probably two of the four members who may actually vote to allow dorms to be built on the campus.

Marymount supporters would need three votes by Planning Commissioners to get approval from the Planning Department for the construction of on-campus housing.

If and when the Planning Commission certify's the EIR, the next step would be to look at and include conditions on the project.

In short, there is still quite a long way to go before any approvals to build anything at Marymount is approved of by the City Council.

The Applicant has also produced an Appendix that includes additions and changes to plans at the College if everything is approved.

It seems that the campus would be open until midnight with some of its students' activities.

The Applicant now states that if organized sports leagues wishes to use the college's facilities, they would need a conditional use permit from the city of Rancho Palos Verdes.

The Concerned Citizens Coalition/Marymount Expansion (CCC/ME) group still clings to the concept that the Living Campus/Academic Campus is the best alternative to having on-campus housing.

Both the Applicant and 'the public' disagree and hope that idea fails.

The Living Campus/Academic Campus Alternative has all student housing at the Palos Verdes North facility which already houses about 300 students. That Alternative would also mean having ALL of the athletic department at the Palos Verdes North facility, along Palos Verdes Drive North.

I have been about as nice as I can be with my explanations as to why more student housing should not be along Palos Verdes Drive North, but it continues to look like CCC/ME is not willing to listen.

Members of OUR community living in northwest San Pedro, eastern R.P.V., Harbor City and Lomita should probably show up in numbers to the next Planning Commission to prove to the CCC/ME folks that there are a whole lot more of us then there are CCC/ME members and we don't want more students living on Palos Verdes Drive North.

One Planning Commissioner stated that he thought students living in on-campus housing would drive to late night food runs and other things by going to 25th and Western.

Fantastic Cafe is near that intersection and is only open until 11:00 PM on weeknights.

What the Commissioner doesn't realize is there are 24-hour fast-food restaurants along Western closer to Trudie and Crestwood.

As far as it still stands, there will be 624.4 added vehicle trips along Western Avenue each weekday between Trudie and Palos Verdes Drive North, if the project is approved.

That figure was not calculated for when dealing with Ponte Vista.

It looks like the R.P.V. City Council will be getting the project handed to them this summer.

There is also an upcoming City Council election where at least one member of the Planning Commission is running for a City Council seat. This could get interesting.

My warm fuzzies tell me that Marymount may just get approval for the reduced capacity on-campus housing, at this point.

It is not what anyone wants, but it may just end up being the politically correct thing to do.

What a shame!