Residents Take Parking Lot Concerns to D99 Board

Residents upset with the proposed location of parking lot at brought their grievances and concerns to the D99 board meeting at Monday night, primarily focusing on perceived safety issues and a lack of communication from the district.

Roughly ten residents of the Grant and Saratoga area—where the proposed parking lot will be located—spoke publicly during the meeting before listening to a presentation from Board Superintendent Dr. Mark McDonald.

The first resident to speak, Chris Patterson of the soon-to-be-vacated Prince Street, was actually in favor of the Master Site Plan and its layout, saying he felt it was in the best interest of the students, and that he was perhaps representing the silent majority at the meeting. Patterson also encouraged the district to hold true to its landscaping plans for the parking lot as the parking lot was “going to be a big change in scenery for those properties [affected].”

After Patterson spoke, the support from the public in attendance for the plan dwindled. While many of the subsequent speakers proclaimed their support for the concept of the plan itself, they all found fault with the location of the parking lot, which will be constructed on Grant street between Saratoga and Prince, with a new soccer field being constructed to the north of the parking lot.

The residents have three main issues with the proposed location of the lot: they don't want to look out their front windows at a parking lot, they don't feel there was adequate communication from the district, and they don't feel a traffic study conducted in September accurately reflects the situation, which they feel could lead to accidents among other traffic/safety issues.

During Monday's meeting, they put the aesthetic issues on the back-burner a bit and focused more on the perceived lack of communication and faulty traffic study. Tom Eagan of Saratoga was very pointed in his comments regarding the communication from the district.

“I believe we never would have been here tonight if the district administration...had reached out to the neighbors in the area at the outset,” Eagan said. “Instead, we were presented with a plan already developed and paid for with no neighborhood input...I can't get over the hubris of the board in assuming you can do whatever you choose to do.”

The traffic study, conducted in September, was done in fair weather and didn't take into consideration the busy hours after school between 4:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. when extra-curricular activities are ending and parents show up in droves to pick their kids up, according to the residents.

“Somehow, the absolute busiest time of day during after-school activities has been completely overlooked,” said Jenny Bauman of Prince Street. “It's only a matter of time before there's a pedestrian car collision.”

Following the public comment, Dr. Mark McDonald gave a presentation hoping to assuage the concerns of the neighbors.

He made note of an additional $200,000 being earmarked for landscaping around the proposed parking lot. He outlined the timeline of the Master Plan and the numerous ways information concerning the plan was communicated to the public, outlining specific dates and types of emails and advertisements published. And in the end, McDonald bulleted reasons why the neighbors' proposed idea of flipping the parking lot with the soccer field doesn't work (accessing parking lot from the North side will cause bus congestion and traffic, doesn't accommodate access to loading docks) and why the district's proposal does (most logical location, more convenient to students, staff and others).

After McDonald's presentation and subsequent questions from the board, the residents filed out, still unconvinced the district truly understood what the impact would be.

Tom Smith of Grant Street, was a little more hopeful, despite conceding the proposed lot was probably going to be built.

“Before, they were listening,” he said. “Now maybe they're starting to hear.”