Sunset Coalition Continues Suit Against Archer School Expansion

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

A traffic watchdog group called the Sunset Coalition filed a new motion against the Archer School for Girls early this week, as part of a continued attempt to block the Brentwood private school from moving forward with a $100-million expansion to their campus. Though the LA City Council unanimously approved the project last year, the Santa Monica-based coalition has waged a long-running legal war over the construction’s impact on surrounding areas, a fight that’s now set to return to the courtroom.

The group’s Managing Director David Wright told the Palisadian-Post that the massive construction project would worsen traffic at one of Sunset Boulevard’s already notorious chokepoints: the street’s intersection with Barrington Avenue in Brentwood, immediately adjacent to the Archer campus.

For people who work and live in Pacific Palisades, Wright claimed that construction traffic in this area would make morning commutes 20 to 30 minutes longer for drivers trying to access the 405 freeway.

The coalition’s new strategy for preventing this problem actually has little to do with traffic gridlock, however.

Wright told the Post that Archer used an outdated set of scientific data from 2003 when they presented estimates of the health risks associated with breathing emissions and in-air particulates created by their construction project.

The Sunset Coalition’s updated suit demands that the school halt plans and update their air quality impact assessment for re-evaluation by the city, a move that they hope could ultimately lead to the construction plan losing its approval altogether.

Archer Head of School Elizabeth English responded to that legal challenge in a statement to the Post, calling it “reprehensible that this isolated group of opponents will not relent and are determined to thwart the advancement of a girls’ school,” despite already failing to do so in previous legal battles. English also noted the project’s support from the Brentwood Homeowners Association and the Residential Neighbors of Archer.

“Archer’s campus plan and traffic management set the standard for every school in Los Angeles,” English concluded.

If continued as planned, the campus expansion (dubbed “Archer Forward”) would take about three years to complete, adding a new performing arts space, gym, athletic area and underground parking lot to the campus.