BERTSCHI SCHOOL * NOT SUCH A GOOD NEIGHBOR

May - June 2006

Right from the start it's important to ask, "What exactly is the Bertschi School?" The Bertschi School got its start in 1976 as a daycare center when Brigitte Bertschi and her husband purchased an existing daycare center located in Capitol Hill in Seattle just north of what is now referred as the Administration Building. The daycare center was strictly community-based and served roughly 30 young pre-school-age children. All was reasonably well until 1980 when these same owners purchased the defunct Methodist Church that was adjacent to their daycare center. They proposed to develop a "non-graded school" using the two buildings. This is when the neighborhood objections started and the battle over Bertschi's increasing commercialization of this well-established residential community has been raging ever since. As a year long legal battle continued and objections mounted over the expansion and use of the old church a "cease-fire" Agreement was finally brokered between the City, the school and the neighborhood.

This Agreement, and the associated change of use permit issued by the City, was foundational to Bertschi's foothold in the neighborhood. It was carefully crafted and was put in place to protect the interests of the residential community, a newly forming private school and the City's plans for neighborhoods. It was a negotiated settlement where all "sides" had to give up a little to get a little. The Agreement put in place a set of clearly defined conditions, limitations, and specifications for the new "school" that would mitigate existing impacts. More importantly it put a reasonable cap on any further compromises to the neighborhood by limiting the ultimate size of the school. The cap on enrollment of 120 students, with "no more than 100 at any one time," was, at the time, seen as a sizeable jump in enrollment. At the time there were only 40 to 50 children in Bertschi's daycare program. But the cap at least provided an upper boundary and the neighborhood could see that issues related to traffic, parking, safety, noise, and visual impact were all being addressed. The school's owners willingly agreed with this enrollment limit and to the other conditions of the permit and the Agreement as it ended a very tumultuous period of debate and numerous legal challenges. The Agreement was signed by the school, the City and representatives from the neighborhood in late 1981.

Over time the School's owners have purchased adjacent residential homes and now occupy four buildings. Local residents have always remained concerned about further expansion of the school in their neighborhood. Residents carefully watched as it acquired, via lease, the Hsu family's home in 1985 and then purchased the 913 East Lynn home in 1990. The neighborhood has always been led to understand that overall enrollment was hovering near the upper limit and that the new properties were not added to increase student capacity. Residents continued to rely on the City to monitor compliance with the Agreement via the annual reports the School was supposed to submit to the City. Residents have said "we wanted to have faith and respect in the promises and commitments we all agreed to." As the neighborhood began to look at the School's latest and certainly most aggressive expansion plans it was truly alarmed to find that the school was, and had been, violating nearly every one of the conditions that it worked so hard to establish. Most notably, and most alarming: the enrollment of the school has far exceeded 200 students - more than double the threshold that is allowed by the Agreement and the City's use permit! The School has NEVER once announced this growth, has NEVER once asked to renegotiate any part of the Agreement or use permit conditions, and has NEVER made any meaningful accommodations to the long list of adverse impacts that it alone brings to, and imposes on, this neighborhood. The Bertschi School is debasing the residential fiber of this community and proposes an even more imposing footprint with its latest expansion project that will double its presence, has already wiped out 16 lower income apartments and taken yet another private single-family residence out of the inventory.

Reaction from the neighborhood has been predictable, wide-spread and is ongoing. Residential Parking Zones have been established to thwart Bertschi's parking demand for over 40 staff as the school had only 4 legal spaces on campus. A Landmark nomination was nearly successful that would have at least saved the buildings of the 16 tenants who have been displaced. The expansion project was appealed to the Hearing Examiner and remains on appeal to the Court of Appeals. A series of Code Compliance Complaints have been submitted to the City and include compliance issues surrounding the aforementioned enrollment violations and parking shortfall. And most recently neighbors are considering the actions necessary to obtain enforcement of the Agreement that it signed with the School and the City. Suffice it to say that the Bertschi School is not looked upon as a "good neighbor" by many in the neighborhood.

Bertschi School is an extremely high-end ($14,000/year) private school with a very exclusive NON-community based student population. Only 10% of the students come from our neighborhood. According to information provided by the School only 28% of those that apply are selected for admission. Its campus and recreational facilities have always been closed to the public, whereas many public schools make their buildings and outdoor space accessible when school is not in session. The School's level of involvement in any of the community's events, activities, or projects is zero. Its contribution to improving the art and cultural base of the community, to improving the livability of the neighborhood and to advancing the urban life style of the area is non-existent. And they are on the march to take an even bigger bite out of our residential community.

But is the Bertschi School really a "bad neighbor?" Do they deserve this rating just for steadily expanding, for acquiring private residences that border their original property, and for expanding their enrollment and academic programs? Here's the bottom line: The toll of all this growth and development on the community has been huge. Such commercialization of a once residential community is obviously not what the residents of this long established neighborhood had in mind when they purchased their property. Residents here accept and acknowledge that this is an urban community in the heart of a very bustling part of our city. What they don't accept is the impact that the Bertschi School has brought to the neighborhood. The Bertschi School has created significant problems associated with traffic, safety, congestion, noise, parking, property devaluation, and loss of a community's residential flavor. The School has never adequately addressed any of these problems and their expansion project will only serve to exacerbate these problems and create even others. If Bertschi School is allowed to proceed (remember it is still under appeal), they will occupy over 55 % of the city block - a long ways from a daycare center providing service to local Capitol Hill residents.

Bertschi School does not meet the "community asset" test. The commercial flavor of this enterprise brings no actual or intrinsic value to the neighborhood. As a nonprofit and thus tax-exempt entity the neighborhood and the City will loose over $20,000 a year in property tax revenue from the properties that Bertschi has acquired to complete this expansion project (not including the exemption status they have for the taxes on the property and buildings that they currently own). While public schools in a community are generally thought of as just part of a communities cultural fiber the Bertschi School is a very exclusive and expensive private school with a limited student enrollment where only a handful come from the neighborhood. Bertschi can hardly be thought of as a value-adding institution in this neighborhood. From most accounts Bertschi is a "value-taking" institution considering all of the adverse impacts associated with traffic, parking, noise, congestion, safety and the quality of residential life. The perspective of many in the neighborhood is that we are actually being forced to financially subsidizing this business because it has been "excused" from paying its share of the tax burden.

Unlike public schools that must expand, downsize, relocate or even close in response to changes in the anticipated student population the Bertschi School is totally independent of any such external demand. Bertschi has purposely allowed the number of classes, their enrollment and their academic and extra curricular programs to outgrow their current home. Now they say, "look we are busting at the seams and we have to expand." Obviously sizing their student population to fit the structure they live in is not a strategy their business plan has considered. They want to grow the house to fit the kids they already have -- again a business plan decision totally independent of community demand or need. But somehow the business plan has omitted or marginalized the neighborhood or at least omitted it from the fruits of its growth.

As noted earlier there has been widespread and vigorous opposition to this project. And it is not just about traffic and congestion. For sure, the "Bertschi parade" is a huge matter of concern as hundreds of vehicles plow into the side streets and clog 10th Avenue during the busiest times of each workday. There is a whole set of multi-dimensional issues that adversely impact the neighborhood. School has never adequately addressed them and their expansion project doesn't either, it just adds more to the list! So the "other issues:"

• The all-day parking demand that Bertschi creates. It's about 50 vehicles per day. Bertschi can accommodate only about four now on their campus. The expansion project will use some of those parking spaces but add others in a new underground parking lot that they will build. But the net increase is only about 14 spaces leaving more than 30-35 vehicles to compete for parking on our already saturated residential streets. They were going to provide more underground parking but it was "going to cost too much." The neighbors think this is irresponsible behavior and that the school should be required to provide off-street parking for that which it creates.
• The noise that is already generated and projected, without mitigation, by over 220 children between the ages of 4 and 11 during Bertschi's daily out door activities grossly exceeds the Noise Ordinance - a finding established by the appeal before the Hearing Examiner. Proposed mitigation will not reduce the sound to acceptable levels.
• The congestion and commotion that will come with Bertschi-hosted after-school and evening events. They have hosted these elsewhere but plan to bring them to the school and, of course, to the neighborhood to the tune of two per month with up to 400 people and 140 cars. Bertschi volunteer off-site plan for dealing with this number of people and certainly with this number of vehicles does not work.
• The safety of pedestrians trying to cross 10th Avenue and adjoining side streets and of persons waiting for City buses that must compete with the "Bertschi parade" as it queue along 10th Avenue East and blocks the bus stop.
• The increased risk of accidents on our yield-only intersections, a risk that is magnified by the hordes of Bertschi vehicles that transit our narrow and already encumbered side-streets in an effort to short-cut entry and egress to the school. These traffic-related subjects have not been addressed as part of this project.
• The loss of three turn-of-the century single-family homes to a commercial enterprise. Neighbors wondering if they are next have a real reason to be concerned.
• Impact on property values and the salability of homes in the surrounding area is significant. The expansion project will multiply the impact still further.
• The school has no traffic management plan for the nearly 800 trips per day made almost exclusively by single-child vehicles. While is says it encourages carpooling there is no formal plan or administrative infrastructure or incentive for parents to pursue this objective.
• The only initiative advanced by the expansion project was an extension of the drop-off/pick-up zone by two car lengths (for a total of four spaces) but now even this aspect of the project was scratched. Now all off-loading is performed in the public domain along very busy arterial.

The Bertschi School has quite simply outgrown its original intended space many times over. The School is recognized as a very good school and has, from all indications, a great vision for extending and expanding its level of excellence. But it truly needs a location that can support, promote and nurture such a vision. This postage-stamp sized space that it has, over time, carved out of this residential neighborhood is just not adequate. Neighborhood supporters of the Bertschi School point to the recent relocation of the Cornish College of the Arts to the South Lake Union area. Such a solution for the Bertschi School seems like a perfect match for a school like Bertschi. Such a solution is certainly more favorable to the current approach that just carves away at residential properties in Capitol Hill. Bertschi is all about a great school located in the wrong place. And with all due respect Bertschi is NOT SUCH A GOOD NEIGHBOR.

Submitted by

Friends of North Broadway District