REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 05/01/2024
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Planning and Development Department
SUBJECT:
Title
CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT 2023-0017 TO ESTABLISH A CHARTER SCHOOL WITHIN AN EXISTING 44,800 SQUARE FOOT COMMERCIAL BUILDING LOCATED AT 2115 COMPTON AVENUE (APN: 278-060-035) IN THE COMMERCIAL (C) DISTRICT OF THE EL CERRITO SPECIFIC PLAN (APPLICANT: RIVER SPRINGS CHARTER SCHOOLS) (NOT AN ADVERTISED PUBLIC HEARING)
End
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This staff report asks the City Council to affirm the decision by the Planning and Housing Commission in granting Conditional Use Permit 2023-0017 (CUP2023-0017) to establish a charter school within an existing building located at 2115 Compton Avenue in the Commercial (C) District of the El Cerrito Specific Plan. The charter school will occupy a three story, 44,800 square foot building and provide education to transitional kindergarten, middle school, and high school students. The charter school provides a hybrid schedule that supports classroom and on-line learning.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommended action
That the City Council affirm the Planning and Housing Commission’s action granting CUP2023-0017, based on the findings contained in the staff report and conditions of approval.
Body
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
CUP2023-0017 is an application by River Springs Charter Schools to establish a charter school within an existing 44,800 square foot, three-story office building located at 2115 Compton Avenue. The property is zoned Commercial per the El Cerrito Specific Plan. Currently, the Commercial District does not permit schools for general education. For the applicant to establish a charter school at 2115 Compton Avenue, the applicant is processing a concurrent amendment to the El Cerrito Specific Plan, SPA2023-0001, to add an educational school as part of the permitted land uses list of the Commercial District by a CUP.
River Springs Charter School has been operating the Springs Charter School Corona Student Center at 510 W. Second Street since 2011. The campus on Second Street currently serves 313 students ranging from transitional kindergarten to eighth grade. River Springs Charter School has been searching for a new campus to expand its classrooms and grades for over ten years. The proposed campus at 2115 Compton Avenue will occupy a vacant, three-story office building and accommodate enrollment for grades 1 through 12, offer a hot breakfast and lunch program, and provide extracurricular activities such as music lessons and occupational therapy for students. The new campus will also provide service to 12 students in the transitional kindergarten and kindergarten special education program.
Planning and Housing Commission Meeting
The project’s initial public hearing by the Planning and Housing Commission was on March 11, 2024. The Commission continued the public hearing on the project to the meeting on April 8, 2024, because information on the outdoor play area was not fully disclosed, and actual student enrollment at the project site was unclear. The applicant provided additional details on the school’s operation along with an updated site plan, floor plans, and circulation, which was reviewed at the Planning and Housing Commission meeting on April 8, 2024. Based on the additional information provided by the applicant, the Commission approved CUP2023-0017.
ANALYSIS:
The project site at 2115 Compton Avenue is 2.7 acres located on the east side of Compton Avenue and north of Ontario Avenue. It borders Interstate 15 to the east. The site is developed and contains an existing three-story office building with parking spaces. The existing building is part of a commercial development that has reciprocal parking and driveway access on Compton Avenue with the adjacent Sherwin-Williams Paint and America’s Tires retail buildings to the south, located at 2163 and 2187 Compton Avenue, respectively.
Operation & Student Enrollment
The campus at Compton Avenue will provide enrollment for grades 1 through 12 and provide drop-in service to transitional kindergarten (TK) and kindergarten (K) students in a dedicated resource room. The drop-in service is for students in special programs without assigned classroom time on campus. The new campus on Compton Avenue will not replace the campus on Second Street, which will continue to provide education to TK and K students.
The anticipated student enrollment at the campus on Compton Avenue is 621 students. Table 1 describes the anticipated enrollment by grade level at the campus on Compton Avenue.
Table 1 - Enrollment By Grade Level
|
Grade Level: |
Weekly Schedules: |
Expected Enrollment at Compton Avenue: |
|
1 - 3 Classroom Program |
3.5 days on campus |
145 |
|
4 - 8 Classroom Program |
3.5 days on campus |
319 |
|
9 - 12 Independent Study |
Campus Drop-In, 3 days (Tuesday - Thursday, 8 AM - 4 PM) |
29 |
|
1 - 3 Enriched Program |
2 days on campus |
58 |
|
4 - 8 Enriched Program |
2 days on campus |
58 |
|
TK/K Enriched Program/Special Ed. |
Campus Drop-In, 2 days 8:10 AM - 12 PM |
12 |
|
|
Total Enrollment: |
621 |
The operating hours are Monday to Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Within this time frame the school has occasional teacher-parent conferences, morning staff arrivals, and staff departure at the end of the after-school program. Summer school is a four-day summer session operating from Tuesday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Staff is expected to be on-site 30 minutes before and after during the summer session.
Classroom Operation
The school provides a hybrid schedule that consists of a classroom program 3.5 days a week and an enriched school program two days a week. Drop-in students do not have an assigned schedule. The enriched school program consists of the makers robotics lab, art lab, and library. Students in grades 9 through 12 are not required to attend class in-person but have an opportunity to attend a Learning Zone study hall classroom on Tuesday through Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The school normally observes about 50% of this enrollment in an in-person classroom setting. Most students in this age group are working apprenticeships or internships or attending community college classes.
The school is expected to have 43 instructional staff (teachers and aids) and 15 administrative staff daily.
Table 2 provides the education hours for each grade level.
Table 2 - Education Hours For Each Grade Level
|
Grades 1-4 |
Grades 5-12 |
Grades TK & K Drop In |
|
8:10 a.m. to 3:10 p.m. |
8:40 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. |
8:10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. |
The hours are staggered to control the volume of students arriving and departing on the campus.
Site Plan
The site plan shows the existing building footprint, a new 207 square-foot trash enclosure, a new security fence adjacent to the northwest corner of the building, a new rolling gate near the southeast corner of the building, which will be closed when students are present, and outdoor play areas near the northeast corner of the property.
Outdoor Play Area
The outdoor play area includes a play structure, hopscotch, open field, gaga ball court, pickle ball court, and covered tables totaling 11,800 square feet. Wrought iron fencing will be provided as safety barriers between the drive aisles and the play area.
The play area located within the existing landscaped area to the east of the building will require grading and a retaining wall to create a level surface for the play area.
Students have one recess in the a.m. and one recess in the p.m. during lunchtime. Lunchtime in the multipurpose room and play area is staggered among the grade levels to control the number of students within these areas at a given time. One staff member for every 30 students is assigned to the play area with a minimum of two staff members always present.
Floor Plans
The interior of the three-story building will be modified from its office setting to provide 22 classrooms, laboratories, and common areas. The proposed floor plans include a library, maker robotic lab and art lab. Table 3 describes the use on each floor.
Table 3 - Use of Floor Area
|
|
Classrooms: |
Common Areas: |
Staff Areas: |
|
First Floor: |
5 elementary classrooms, and 1 TK/K classroom for 12 students |
Lobby, conference room, multi-purpose room, kitchen, restrooms. |
Teacher lounge, offices, nurse station, storage rooms. |
|
Second Floor: |
8 elementary classrooms |
Collaborative space, library, maker space robotic laboratory, restrooms. |
Offices, storage rooms. |
|
Third Floor: |
7 middle school classrooms, 1 high school classroom, 1 special education resource room |
Collaborative spaces, conference room, art laboratory, restrooms. |
Offices, break room, storage rooms. |
The seating capacity for each classroom is 29 students. The TK/K classroom on the first floor is designed for 12 students since this is a drop-in service. The classrooms for the lower grades and student gathering areas are located on the first and second floors. The third floor provides classrooms for middle school and high school students.
Each floor will provide a common gathering space for students; however, the first floor will provide a multipurpose room for assemblies and a kitchen with refrigerators and warming ovens for students to have breakfast and lunch breaks. Designated collaborative spaces are also provided on the second and third floors for teacher-led group discussions.
Interior access throughout the building is provided by two elevators and a stairwell located at the center of the building. Additional stairwells are located at the north and south sides of the building.
Parking
The school, Sherwin-Williams, and America’s Tires share the onsite parking. All three uses require a combined total of 122 parking spaces based on the parking requirements in Section 17.76.030 of the Corona Municipal Code. The commercial development provides 220 parking spaces. Table 4 summarizes the parking requirement and the number of parking provided.
Table 4 - Parking Summary
|
Use |
Required Parking per CMC 17.76.030 |
Building Square Footage or No. of Employees and Students |
Required Spaces |
Provided Spaces |
|
Office |
1 per 250 SF |
2,260 SF |
9 spaces |
--- |
|
Elementary or Junior High School |
1 space per employee |
21 classrooms with 2 employees per classroom |
42 spaces |
--- |
|
High School |
1 space per employee, plus 1 space per 1 space per 6 students |
1 classroom with 2 employees per classroom (Maximum of 29 students per class) |
2 employee spaces, plus 5 student spaces |
--- |
|
Sherwin-Williams paint store |
1 per 200 SF |
3,600 SF |
18 spaces |
--- |
|
America’s Tires |
5 spaces minimum, plus 1 space per 200 SF |
8,109 SF |
46 spaces |
--- |
|
|
|
Total: |
122 spaces |
220 spaces |
Access And Circulation
Vehicle access to the project site is provided from three existing driveways located along the east side of Compton Avenue. The driveways are shared with the other businesses, Sherwin Williams Paint and America’s Tires, within the center by a reciprocal access agreement. The school will utilize the two most northern driveways since these two driveways are located closest to the proposed school building.
Student drop-off will occur between 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. This schedule aligns with the classroom schedule provided in Table 2, which shows Grades 1- 4 arriving first before 8:10 a.m. and Grades 5 - 12 arriving later before 8:40 a.m. The same scenario will occur in the afternoon with the lower grades leaving first at 3:10 p.m. and the upper grades leaving at 3:40 p.m. The after-school program will have some students leaving between 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
The applicant’s traffic engineer provided an on-site drop-off and pick-up queue diagram which, anticipates that approximately 78 percent of vehicles will enter the driveway north of the school building, and 22 percent will enter the driveway south of the school building. This south driveway will be utilized by school employees arriving before the student drop-off time, parents who will park and walk their younger children to the front entrance and high school students driving themselves.
Parents entering from the north driveway will be required to loop around the south parking lot before dropping the student(s) in front of the building’s main entrance which is located on the west side of the building, facing Compton Avenue. School employees, parents with younger children and high school student drivers entering from the south driveway will be required to park at the designated spaces along the east property line.
The project’s on-site circulation was designed by the project’s traffic engineer. The onsite circulation provides approximately 830 feet of on-site queueing to prevent vehicle spillover onto Compton Avenue. Approximately 38 vehicles can queue within 830 feet. The diagram also shows two additional queuing lanes, which provide queuing for an additional 10 vehicles, and another queue lane for 20 vehicles, if needed.
The school administrators will place temporary cones in the parking lot near the south driveway to control the flow of traffic within the parking lot and will monitor and direct the flow of traffic during drop-off and pick-up times. Additionally, school administrators will provide instructional handouts to parents on parking management, and drop-off and pick-up procedures. Parents will be instructed to avoid driving through the surrounding commercial properties to get to school.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
The applicant paid the application processing fee of $7,257 to cover the cost of the Conditional Use Permit.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
Per Section 15301 of the State Guidelines for Implementing the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and Section 3.28 of the City’s Local CEQA Guidelines, a Notice of Exemption has been prepared for the project because the project qualifies as a Class 1 (Existing Facilities) categorical exemption. The project consists of establishing an educational school within an existing commercial building, and no expansion to the existing building is proposed with this project. Approval of this project will only establish the right to operate an educational school within the existing building.
PLANNING AND HOUSING COMMISSION ACTION:
At its meeting of April 8, 2024, the Planning and Housing Commission considered the subject matter and took the following action:
Motion was made, seconded (Alexander/Woody) and carried, with Commissioner Vernon absent, that the Planning and Housing Commission adopt Resolution No. 2627 granting CUP2023-0017, based on the findings contained in the staff report, the conditions of approval, and added conditions of approval, and find the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to CEQA. The minutes of the Planning and Housing Commission meeting are included as Exhibit 4.
PREPARED BY: JOANNE COLETTA, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Attachments:
1. Exhibit 1 - Locational and zoning map
2. Exhibit 2 - Site plan for CUP2023-0017
3. Exhibit 3 - Planning and Housing Commission staff report
4. Exhibit 4 - Minutes of the Planning and Housing Commission meeting of April 8, 2024