PPCC Votes to Support Improvements at Calvary Christian School

By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter

The Pacific Palisades Community Council voted to support new improvements being proposed at Calvary Christian School at a recent board meeting on Thursday, October 24.

The vote came at the recommendation of the Land Use Committee, who approved the project with certain conditions back on October 17.

Calvary Christian, a private school on Palisades Drive, is seeking to revamp some of its facilities and begin the process of building a new structure in the future.

School administrators have proposed improvements to the playground, the addition of trees, a new servery area, as well as the ability to increase its capacity of students while reducing the number of parking spots that school officials say are unused.

The Land Use Committee was concerned over approving a 10,219-square-foot building that wouldn’t be built for another eight to 10 years, being careful not to vaguely approve a project they might regret in the future.

But after working closely with the project planners and further investigation, the LUC realized that specific plans that get stamped and approved would not be able to incorporate unapproved changes in the future.

“We were comfortable realizing that what they were presenting to us in terms of plans was, in fact, going to be the building built because if they go to the city in the future with anything substantially different, then the city will make them go back through another review process,” Howard Robinson, LUC chair, said.

The two parties were able to come to an agreement about parking and usage after concerns were raised that the church and new facility would add to the amount of traffic.

“The key concept was that the church part of their operation is separate and different from the school part of their operation,” Robinson explained. “With the church being weekend and the school during the week.”

PPCC unanimously voted not to object to the project on the condition that the two facilities only get used at the same time a maximum of six times per year.

A position letter will now be submitted to city officials on behalf of the community council.