Extra daylight means more construction

By Michael Picarella pic@theacorn.com

Contractors working on the modernization of Viewpoint School in Calabasas have been granted extended workday hours during the summer months.

Record winter rains delayed the first phase of the three-phase project, which includes the construction of a new school theater and classrooms.

Viewpoint officials want the building to be finished by the first day of school on Sept. 16. The additional work hours each day would make up for a loss of about 45 days and would provide reasonable assurance that the completion deadline would be met, city officials said.

Some residents of the nearby Calabasas Highlands Homeowners Association opposed the extended workday hours, saying they fear construction-related traffic, noise and other nuisances, which would disturb their summer nights.

"The only thing we’re recommending to change is the two additional hours on Monday through Friday," said Calabasas project planner Joyce Parker-Bozylinski. "City staff is supportive of this—allowing (extended hours of) construction to happen during the summer—because there’s no school traffic. We think it’s better from a traffic standpoint."

If construction extended into the school year, traffic on Mulholland Highway would be significantly delayed, Parker-Bozylinski said.

The private, kindergarten through 12th grade school at 23620 Mulholland Highway came to Calabasas in 1965. It is a coeducational, nonprofit and nonsectarian school.

In 1998, school officials purchased the adjacent Meadow Oaks School and in 2000 they submitted an application to Calabasas for a modernization project that would demolish and replace about 64,000 square feet of existing structures on a 25-acre site, improve the existing football field and add bleachers and more parking. In addition, Mulholland Highway would be widened.

The project would be accomplished in three phases during a 10- to 12-year period.

"We regard what we’re creating as an asset to the city," said Paul Rosenbaum, Viewpoint’s associate headmaster. "We have more than 300 families in the city of Calabasas who send their children to our school."

Calabasas approved the Viewpoint modernization plan in 2003. Although nearby homeowners agreed to the conditions of construction, noise was a major issue, according to Andrew MacKenzie, Calabasas Highlands Homeowners Association president. The association eventually approved of the workday hours from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Viewpoint asked the city that the workdays be allowed to go from dawn to dusk. City staff recommended 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Calabasas Planning Commission approved the request.

"I believe that the shorter period of time will actual lessen the impact on the community," said Gary Klein, planning commission chairman.

MacKenzie said he and the Calabasas Highlands HOA feared that the additional work hours at the end of the day, when more people are home for the evening, would create further nuisance and noise.

The new workday hours will take effect immediately and will last until Sept. 16.