Viewpoint modernization approved





By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

Viewpoint School at 23620 Mulholland Highway in Calabasas will finally move forward with its modernization project.


The Calabasas City Council unanimously approved the project last week.


Many residents expressed concerns for more than three years since Viewpoint initially submitted an application for its remodeling project. That led to almost endless mitigation and alterations, according to Viewpoint officials.


"So many efforts result in solutions where everybody is left going home a little bit unhappy," said Calabasas City Councilman Barry Groveman at last week’s council meeting. "But that’s not the case tonight. Everybody in this process and the public in Calabasas really are going to be winners with this agreement."


Many former opponents of the project, according to Groveman, are now proponents.


"I think we have here a project that is a win-win for everyone," said Calabasas Planning Commissioner and long-time modernization opponent Jack Solomon at the previous planning commission meeting. "I think Viewpoint is going to get a much more beautiful school, is going to get everything that this school wants and needs, and I think the community is going to be enhanced."


Viewpoint School is a private facility that teaches kindergarten through 12th grade. It’s a coeducational, nonprofit and nonsectarian school.


In 1965, Viewpoint established its campus in Calabasas. Almost six years ago, school officials purchased the adjacent Meadow Oaks School, so that Viewpoint could later be expanded and improved.


The modernization project proposes to, among other changes, demolish and replace about 64,000 sq. ft. of existing structures for a 25-acre site, improve the existing football field and add bleachers and more parking, and improve traffic inside and around the campus.


The project would be accomplished in three phases during a 10- to 12-year period, according to Calabasas project planner Joyce Parker-Bozylinski.


Recent meetings between Groveman, city staff and Viewpoint officials resulted in a memorandum of understanding (MOU) now attached to the conditional use permit of the project that addressed several issues raised by the public in the past. Additionally, traffic gridlock will be mitigated, too, as part of the MOU.


The Calabasas Planning Commission had previously unanimously approved the modernization project.


"At the planning commission meeting, there was no community opposition to the project," Parker-Bozylinski said. Normally when this project came before the council or planning commission, much opposition was the case.


"What you see before you is now the product of what we consider to be not only good but the best science in transportation and watershed planning," said Calabasas community development director Steve Craig in his introduction to the council. Council members and all but one person from the public who spoke during the council meeting last week praised the project.


The first phase of the Viewpoint modernization is expected to begin in June, according to Viewpoint chair Jeremy Fletcher. The first phase, he said, will cost the school about $20 million.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *