12+0=7

This post deals with some of the more obscure items found written or illustrated in the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed South Region High School No. 15 (SRHS 15) project with a Preferred Site on the Upper Reservation of Fort MacArthur.

In an illustration of potential students walking to the campus north along Alma Street, the DEIR shows twelve students walking from 37th Street, up Alma Street.

In the same illustration, seven students who walk northbound on Alma, walk through the entry gate on the corner of Alma Street and Main Street.

The DEIR never mentions where the five remaining students who walk up Alma intending on entering the SRHS 15 campus, actually go.

Wind turbines make noise. When turning to create electricity, the turbine blades cut through the air and the machinery connecting the blades to the generator and the generator itself, make noise.

LAUSD wants to put up to 36 wind turbines on a campus where classrooms are located and where students should not be distracted by noise.

In the Traffic section of the DEIR, streets surrounding the project's site are named and considered with a short bit of wording each.

36Th Street, the one street directly next to the project's site on the south side with on-street parking is completely left out of the entire Traffic section of the DEIR.

On all illustrations in that section where streets are identified, 36th Street is not tagged.

Of course, 36th Street is not the only street missing identification. Emily Street, which intersects 36th Street is also not mentioned in the Traffic section of the document.

On-street parking is mentioned for projected students on the south side of the proposed campus.

The streets identified are Parker, Meyler, Cabrillo, Roxbury, and 37th Street. Again, 36th and Emily Streets are left out of the section.

The DEIR has no mention of any portal, access gate, entry or exit point on the south side of the campus where the on-street parking is identified.

According to the DEIR, students and others attempting to access the proposed school, after parking on the streets would have to somehow pass through a stone wall, over fencing or pass through closed and locked gates on the south side.

Humans passing through solid objects hasn't occurred to my knowledge, as yet. I guess they will all have to climb up the wall and over the fence or gate to access the campus.

The DEIR almost completely ignores the other large campus already being used on the LAUSD-owned property.

The Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center has been in operation for about 20 years already and will be redeveloped.

The redevelopment may be finished by the Summer of 2010, two years before any new high school campus would be opened.

Grant money to bring back native plants to the Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center's land has already been provided and the funds require the reintroduction of the native plants.

One of the native plants that will be brought back is the home of the butterfly commonly known as the Palos Verdes Blue butterfly.

The Palos Verdes Blue is on the Federal list of endangered species.

Federal law would prohibit the construction of a new high school campus so close to the habitat of an endangered species.

Perhaps LAUSD is throwing away money on a new campus it may already know can not be built.

The DEIR mentions the possibility of a new pool being constructed for use by students and the community.

There are illustrations of just about everything going in and around the proposed campus. The pool however, is not illustrated anywhere on the LAUSD-owned land or the rest of the Angel's Gate area.

Participants of the Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center are encouraged to walk throughout the area. They will visit the Marine Mammal center, the Oiled Bird Rescue Center, and sites within the Angel's Gate area, and the Military Museum....all by walking.

The illustrations of the roadway access to the proposed campus show one of the main roads as going three-fourths around the Point Fermin Outdoor Education Center, where participants are encouraged to walk around.

Having a roadway going around 75% of a facility where thousands of fifth-graders and others walk around, without fencing, doesn't seem like a smart or safe idea to many folks.

Oh yea about noise.....

How many LAUSD high schools now have seals and sea lions close enough to them to have students studying in classrooms be able to hear them?

When the Proposed Project's construction costs came out for a "1,215-student" campus, it was Thirteen Million Dollars LESS than the current project's projected cost for a campus of "810-students".

I guess when things get packaged in a smaller package, their per unit cost goes up.

I didn't think though, that applied to campuses on land already owned by LAUSD.

The DEIR was not able to have studies provided for a campus now projected to be an annex to an existing school.

So, there aren't any studies to document the issues dealing with moving students throughout the day from a main campus to an annex.

This is a potential problem because most buses run on diesel fuel that move students within LAUSD. It also is a problem because the traffic studies, trip generation, and levels of service indicators do not reflect the added trips between campuses.

Yes, I could go on and on and on and on. But I hope you get the point.

Most of the flaws in the DEIR make folks' heads explode.

But some of the flaws provide a bit of humor or 'dramedy'.

Just think, we may have the very first campus on the planet where students pass through solid objects while listening to barking seals and wind turbines.

Those students will park on two streets with no names and be able to encounter fifth-graders having a wonderful time learning about an endangered species many will be able to actually see.

Of the twelve students who walk towards the new campus along northbound Alma every day, five of them will simply vanish.

Perhaps if and when they name the school, it will be called "Twilight Zone High".