A Letter to Our Community: Campus Modernization Update

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

When we introduced our modernization plans to you almost four years ago, we committed to engaging and listening to our neighbors and ensuring that our plans to update our campus were sensitive to the surrounding community. It is in that spirit that I share information on the important and positive progress we are making on our modernization project.

Earlier this month, FSHA submitted a revised draft of our Specific Plan to the City of La Cañada Flintridge. The latest Specific Plan presents changes to our project to address comments we received from the City, on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and from the community. Specifically, our revised modernization plan now:

Eliminates the new Arts and Humanities Building, which included a new 512-seat auditorium.

• Instead, we will complete the renovation of the existing auditorium building (“Arts Center”), which is currently under construction and includes 237 seats. This remodel was approved under our current Conditional Use Permit. The modernization plan, if approved, will add four new classrooms to the ground level.
• The previously proposed height increase is eliminated, and the building will now remain at its current height.
• The previously proposed total Arts and Humanities Building square footage has been reduced from 44,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet, a significant reduction.

Reduces the export/excavation from approximately 15,000 cubic yards to approximately 200 cubic yards. This will dramatically reduce the number of construction related truck trips on the Hill.

Reduces the limit on the number of campus events. While the school currently operates under no limits, the previous proposal included a limit of twelve (12) Major School-Related events (500 or more attendees) and twelve (12) Special Non-School Related events (subject to receiving a Temporary Use Permit) per year. The revised project reduces these limits to nine (9) and six (6), respectively, per year.

All other components of the modernization plan (updated high school building, parking structure, enrollment cap, athletic practice field and Dominican garden) remain the same.