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Planning & Design Meetings Neighborhood Meeting #3 6/16/2009 - MinutesGunn HS PROGRAMMING / PREDESIGN COMMUNITY MEETING NO. 1 Palo Alto Unified School District 16 June 2009 P. 1 GUNN HIGH SCHOOL Palo Alto Unified School District PROGRAMMING / PRE-DESIGN COMMUNITY MEETING NO. 1 DATE: 16 June 2009, 6:30pm-8:00pm SUBJECT: Gunn HS Update Meeting for the Community ATTENDEES: No sign-in sheet available The following are the highlights of the meeting: 1. Assistant Principal Tom Jacoubousky welcomed the public audience and introduced Tom Hodges of OCMI. Hodges explained that the purpose of the meeting is for the members of the community to be updated on what has happened in the master planning efforts at Gunn High School since the March 31st Board meeting. He added that the material shown tonight is “in progress” and that any comments or concerns from the audience will be relayed to the Board at the June 23rd Board meeting, where an update of the programming and pre-design efforts will be presented. 2. Architect Erwin Lee of DLM Architecture explained that since the March 31st Board meeting, he has been meeting with the various user groups to diagram out the conceptual planning of the new facilities. He presented a list of the current projects, and number of meetings that have taken place for each one since March 31st. • Relocatable Planning -- 2 meetings • Classroom Building ‘A’: 1 meeting Math Department 1 meeting English Department 1 joint Math / English meeting • Classroom Building ‘B’ -- 3 meetings World Languages • Gymnasium – 4 meetings with PE and Athletic Departments • Facilities Steering Committee Meetings -- 2 meetings • Community Meetings – 1 meeting • District’s Traffic Consultant – 2 meetings 3. Lee gave an update on each of the five current projects that are in the programming or pre-design phase. The updates are as follows: • Relocatables • Classroom Building ‘A’ for Math and English • Classroom Building ‘B’ for World Languages • Gymnasium • Parking and Drop-off Gunn HS PROGRAMMING / PREDESIGN COMMUNITY MEETING NO. 1 Palo Alto Unified School District 16 June 2009 P. 2 Relocatables There will be 26 relocatable classroom buildings (relos) and one relocatable restroom building placed in the parking lot adjacent to the tennis courts, where the construction staging has been taking place for the swim complex. A majority of these relos will be moved from other locations on campus. The relo that is currently located in front of the large bike cage adjacent to the staff lounge will remain, making it the 27th relo that will exist on the campus during the construction of the auxiliary gymnasium and classroom ‘A’ projects. During this interim period, the parking lot will be reworked and restriped with a dedicated bike path that is accessible to Georgia Ave. The interim bike parking will be in the same location that it currently is, but when the relos go away, there will be three, possibly four bike cages located strategically about campus. Classroom Building ‘A’ for Math and English This project is a two-story building of approximately 37,500 SF (current trend). Lee explained that “current trend” means the current area based on the programming effort with the user groups. The areas will need to be reconciled with the Master Plan budgets. The Master Plan allocated construction budget is $15.59M. Current program areas include 28 classrooms with resource room, offices, conference rooms and restrooms. Math Department is currently on the second level with the English Department below. The program is currently being worked through to reduce the overall area. The conceptual design will be brought to the Board of Education in September. Classroom Building ‘B’ for World Languages This project is a single-story building of approximately 6,600 SF (current trend). The Master Plan allotted construction budget is $3.07M. Current program areas include 5 classrooms with resource room, offices, conference room, outdoor pull-out classroom space, and staff restrooms. The program is currently being worked through to reduce the overall area. The conceptual design will be brought to the Board of Education in September. Gymnasium This project is a single-story building of approximately 19,700 SF (current trend). The Master Plan allotted construction budget is $11.05m (total for auxiliary gymnasium, lobby addition and modernization of existing gymnasium). The current recommendation is to reduce the scope of modernizing the main gymnasium and eliminate the lobby addition in order to fund a larger, new gymnasium facility. Current program spaces include a main gymnasium with bleacher capacity of approximately 1,900, wrestling room, team rooms, lobby, storage, offices, and restrooms. The modernization of the existing gymnasium includes creating a weight room and classroom. This also includes new tennis courts (8) and basketball courts (3). The program is currently being worked through. The conceptual design will be brought to the Board of Education in September. Gunn HS PROGRAMMING / PREDESIGN COMMUNITY MEETING NO. 1 Palo Alto Unified School District 16 June 2009 P. 3 Lee presented the four different schemes that were considered for the auxiliary gymnasium before the current scheme was favored. Each scheme had a different location on campus, as well as a slightly varied footprint, program and configuration. Parking and Drop-off Hodges gave an overview of the CEQA process that is taking place for the site, and explained that it is currently in the information-gathering phase. This information includes results from noise meters and traffic surveys. When the results are complete, the District will have approximately three weeks to review the documents internally. After that, they go out to the public for comment and feedback before the Board adopts them. The current parking and drop-off configuration yields approximately 500 spaces. This includes approximately 58 staff parking spaces in the west parking lot, adjacent to Miranda Ave. The District’s traffic consultant, John Wilson, has met with Lee and the District to design an efficient layout that eases traffic congestion and enhances visitor parking, pedestrian flow, and bike circulation. An elongated drop-off lane is included in the current plan that doubles as queue space for vehicle entry onto Arastadero Rd. 4. The following are the highlights of the comments and questions from the meeting: How will the 26 relocatable buildings impact that part of campus? o There will perhaps be less noise coming from that area than there is now, because it will be a classroom area, and will no longer be used for construction staging of the swim complex. Jacoubousky added that the school doesn’t for see a problem with students congregating there. There should be landscaping along the Georgia neighbor’s fence line. o At this time, the party that is responsible for the “no-man’s land” between the east bike path and the Georgia neighbor’s fence line is unclear. The site survey will need to be reviewed to clarify the boundaries at the fence line. How will the traffic be handled in the morning? o The district received the traffic consultant’s report today, so this will be worked on during the summer. Where is the District’s position on the restriping of the Arastadero Rd. corridor? o There is a need to coordinate with the City on this. Lee stated that the District’s traffic consultant, John Wilson also consults for the City of Palo Alto. This provides opportunity for coordination. When will the relos be moved to the parking lot? When will the final parking / drop- off project be finished? o If all goes well, the relos will be moved to the parking lot in the summer of 2010, and removed in 2012 or 2013. Currently, the Division of State Architects (DSA) has a huge backlog right now, so this estimate is only approximate. The final parking and drop-off project may break ground in 2013, after the relos are no longer on the site. Gunn HS PROGRAMMING / PREDESIGN COMMUNITY MEETING NO. 1 Palo Alto Unified School District 16 June 2009 P. 4 When will the swim complex project be finished? o The Health Department signed off on the project on Friday, so the pool is currently in use. 5. Next Steps: • Complete conceptual design for review with user groups and Facility Steering Committee when they return in late August • Bring the conceptual design to the Board of Education for approval in September • Move into Schematic Design Phase with Board of Education approval in November 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: Attendees File