Communications Department

To get a real perspective on enrollment growth you have to go back to 1994's enrollment ceiling, now add the year by year incremental additions and now the Pre-K and the increase is a whopping 27%. Go to the NCHNA proposed limit of 240 and it jumps to 37%. Then to Bertschi's latest offer to NCHNA of 253 and it's really huge: 45%. Where does it stop?

Whether Pre-K students have siblings or are "unattached" this project way more than "new families driving." It's about the 100% increase in the school's footprint, the monopoly on all residential property facing 10th between Boston and Lynn, the outsized and out of context design of the new gym/auditorium, the noise generated by still more children with absolutely no provision for noise abatement in all playfields, the loss of the residential character of the neighborhood, the depreciation of property values and salability of homes surrounding the school, and even more safety risks to pedestrians and vehicles.

But will Bertschi stay at Pre-K thru the 5th grade? Heffron Transportation, Inc, the agency commissioned by Bertschi makes repeated references to a K-6 program in their most recent (October 18, 2004) update that was filed with the City forwarded to NCHNA. Looks like school is going to add at least one more grade (besides Pre-K).

The new garage provides for 18 spaces but the school plans to remove 4 from the front of the school. So then it is a net of 14. In addition the 2 garages spaces accessible from Lynn are "counted" as spaces but they are used for storage. So now the net is 12. Finally, Bertschi has effectively taken possession of all on-street spaces (8-9) by convincing the City to put "no-parking" or 2-hr restrictions on all spaces between Boston and Lynn. If you factor these in, the net is 5 or 6! And the City Code says private elementary schools are required to provide parking at the rate of one space for staff. They have 41 staff now; will go to 43 after the project. Shortfall: hugely unacceptable. How did City planners allow this to happen?

Expectation that a single "monitor" can effectively patrol a 6-7 square block area of the Bertschi traffic/parking catchment areas is far too great. Too many violators slip thru the cracks. And, the failing or suspended vehicle registration program makes the officer's effectiveness even more challenging. There are many repeated offenses with no evidence of enforcement. Uniformed monitors clearly needed for morning drop-off and for special events.

The extension of the drop-off time by 15 minutes has not made material impact -it catches a few early birds but 85% still try to jam into the old 8:15 to 8:30 a.m. time slot. Still long queues, blocked intersections and blocked bus stops with notable safety risks.

Vehicle registration program is very ineffective and grossly incomplete after 1/2 year of school. Tags once observed have been removed, many others apparently have just not registered. The same vehicles come to the school twice a day; surely the school can do a better job of enforcement. Non-removable decals or stickers must be adopted over the easy-on/off variety now used.

Voluntary use of off-site parking and shuttles DOES NOT work. The neighborhood is inundated with Bertschi vehicles during special events and will get even worse as the frequency of events increases and the event populations balloon to 400 persons and 160 vehicles. Mandatory use is off-site parking and shuttles along with strictly enforced "no-park" zones in the neighborhood is critical.

The property is zoned "L-2." By definition L-2 is a "multifamily residential zone" restricted to 2 to 3 story lowrise apartment buildings or townhouses with very specific lot and density limits. Schools like Bertschi maybe be permitted but only if they "meet development standards" of the City Code. The school's proposed gym/auditorium DOES NOT meet the standard -it's too big - its width, which would face south onto Boston, is planned to be 20% over the allowable width. The School is asking for a special variance, the neighborhood is challenging this. L-2 does not allow "stores" contrary to Bertschi's flyer.

The three construction mitigation initiatives proposed by Bertschi are really pretty standard for high-density urban areas like Capitol Hill. NCHNA proposed a much more neighborhood specific set of construction mitigations, patterned after the Seattle Prep agreement, but, to date Bertschi has classified them as "impeding work flow" or "adding to the cost of the project."

Miller Hull may be an award winning firm but the design of new gym/auditorium is anything but "residential in nature." Nothing in this largely turn-of-the-century neighborhood, except the admitted anomaly of the Bostonian Apartments on the NE corner of Boston and 10th, comes close to the bulky, slab-sided, highly contemporary over-sized building proposed by Miller Hull. The question has to be asked, why would Miller Hull design a building to be 20% over the maximum allowable width?

Not renting the new gym or classrooms to outside groups was a NCHNA request. But this concession still does not address the option of simply "making available" the gym or classrooms and certainly does not address the outdoor play fields, rental or otherwise. This needs be spelled out.

The meeting announcements, letters and other updates are welcome additions but hopefully distribution coverage has improved over the past when only selected neighbors were "targeted." It may have expanded in the last few months but historically the distribution has been sporadic. But more problematic is the content of such correspondence. The January 27, 2005 letter and the Frequently Asked Questions attachment is a classic example. Statements and conclusions are presented that are misleading or simply incorrect - just like the document that this response is addressing.

Regarding the neighborhood agreement it seems pretty clear that Bertschi and NCHNA are still miles apart and for Bertschi to suggest that they thought they were close to finalizing an agreement is just a negotiating tactic designed to cast a bad light on the NCHNA effort. The current NCHNA proposal on the NCHNA website (www.nchna.com) is fundamentally the position that NCHNA has been advancing for some time. NCHNA and the neighborhood would have jumped at the chance to put this long and drawn out affair to conclusion long ago but the school's unwillingness to any reasonable "undertakings" has all but suspended the negotiations.

Heffron Transportation, Inc. is the agency Bertschi hired to conduct the transportation analysis requiring by the City for projects of this size. There are huge study design, methodology and measurement problems with the analyses. All of the deficiencies have been reported to the City's Development and Planning Department. For more details see "Wanna Answer you Like? - Commission a Study!" (http://www.northbdr.com/). Bottom Line: Traffic and parking conditions will be further degraded by this project and even more, and more degraded by any future enrollment increases..

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