Planning & Design Meetings Neighborhood Meeting #2 3/11/2009 - MinutesGUNN COMMUNITY MASTER PLAN MEETING NO. 2
Palo Alto Unified School District 11 March 2009
P.1
GUNN HIGH SCHOOL MASTER PLAN
Palo Alto Unified School District
MASTER PLAN
COMMUNITY PRESENTATION NO.2
DATE: 11 March 2009, 7:00–8:30 pm
SUBJECT: Master Plan Presentation to Members of the Community
ATTENDEES: No sign-in sheet available
The following are the highlights of the meeting:
1. As an introduction, Assistant Principal Tom Jacoubowsky welcomed the members
of the public audience and explained that summarizing the ongoing master planning
efforts of the Facilities Steering Committee is the reason for the current meeting. He
introduced John Wilson of Wilson Engineering and Transportation Consultants, Inc.
2. Architect Erwin Lee presented the current master plan site diagram and project list.
He described the various projects that were derived from the master planning
efforts, their associated groupings, priorities and costs. He reiterated that all
projects within the same group aren’t necessarily going to happen at the same time,
and that the goal is to uniformly bring every building that is affected by the master
plan up to the same level of quality.
3. The meeting was opened for public comment. The highlights of the comments and
questions from the public audience were:
• Has the parking and drop-off sequencing been looked at into further detail? How
will the school’s increasing capacity be taken into account with the new traffic
design?
o John Wilson, the traffic consultant, stated that next week his group will collect
data for a baseline in an effort to make accurate, flow forecasts. At this time,
there is not enough data to make these forecasts.
o Lee added that, because the site is limited, the design won’t reflect a projected
percentage increase in the number of parking spaces. The environmental
goals of the CHPS would actually decrease the overall number of parking
spaces and encourage alternate means of transportation.
• How will the students be deterred from driving to school?
o Wilson explained that the district is doing a very good job of getting more
people to ride bikes, resulting in less vehicular traffic on campus. Many
programs have been implemented with amazing results that have led to a
constant increase of bike riders.
• Will there be an increase of busses available?
o The availability of bus services that depends on ridership, and right now
ridership is up.
GUNN COMMUNITY MASTER PLAN MEETING NO. 2
Palo Alto Unified School District 11 March 2009
P.2
o Jacoubowsky added that this community is very successful at promoting
alternative modes of transportation, and that Gunn High School is trying to find
the best balance for everyone in the community.
• The public will have one more chance to review the master plan before the board
makes its final decision.
o Tom Hodges explained that, ideally, once the Board has made its decision,
the first group of projects will go into design immediately and further public
input will be an integral part of the design phase.
• How many students are expected to be enrolled at Gunn High School?
o By 2018, the projected number of students enrolled is 2,300, and that is the
number that the master plan is designed for.
• Is PAUSD going to be receiving any of the stimulus “bailout” funds?
o There is no evidence of that at the present time. If funds are distributed to
PAUSD, they would most likely go towards capital improvements.
4. The next scheduled master plan meeting is:
• 17 March 2009 at 6:30 pm (Board meeting for the draft Master Plan document)
END
Prepared by Dean Schmitz of Deems Lewis McKinley. Please advise if you feel that any of the above items
are inaccurate or need further clarification or detail.
cc: T. Hodges, P. Stickney, N. Likins, T. Jacoubowsky, E. Lee
File