Calvary Christian School Looks to Expand

By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter

A new building at Calvary Christian School was proposed by school administrators at the Pacific Palisades Community Council Land Use Committee on Thursday, October 17. 

The project would include revamping the playground, adding trees, laying a turf play area and a security gate. 

Calvary Christian is also seeking a conditional use permit that would allow them to build a three-story, 10,219-square-foot building eight to 10 years in the future. It would house a theater space, classrooms and storage space, according to a presentation by Leslie Clark, admissions director, and Vince Downey, head of school. 

The school is also requesting to increase its enrollment capacity from its current 432 to 490 students to benefit from more funding and take full advantage of the space they have. 

“These new buildings are situated within the existing campus and designed to complement the existing campus layout and scale and respect the residential scale and character of the surrounding area,” a slideshow describing the project said. 

A traffic study done by the school shows there would be no impact to the surrounding area, and will be reducing the amount of parking spots available to make space for the proposed improvements. 

Highlands resident and PPCC Area 2 Representative Steve Cron raised concerns that a decrease in parking could bring. 

“If there were lots of cars parking on Palisades Drive … when you expand your enrollment and decrease your parking at the same time, that would be a concern to me,” Cron said.

But Downey maintained that parking on Palisades Drive will continue to be prohibited for both pickup and staff members. 

PPCC Treasurer Richard Cohen, who was in the audience, also raised concern of committing to a conditional use permit for something planned so far into the future. 

“The community would be giving up something now in exchange for what?” he asked. “It could be a disaster.”

But the community support was strong with the Christian school, as several parents and staff members spoke out in support of the renovations. 

The LUC unanimously voted to recommend that PPCC approve the project, “contingent upon the board’s review and approval of language to be provided by the applicant recommending a condition to regulate the concurrent use of facilities at the site.”

The matter will now go before PPCC at its October 24 meeting.