Parking, traffic issues dog RUHS
The Redondo Unified School District’s Measure C school bond has been a big success in most respects – construction work has largely come in on time and at or under budget while vastly transforming district facilities, particularly its 106-year old 52-acre high school campus.
But a group of neighbors complain that the bond has perhaps been a bit too successful. Families for a Safe Redondo, comprised of 40 families who live near Redondo Union High School and nearby Parras Middle School, argue that the new facilities are attracting more nighttime and weekend use and leaving the neighborhood with not enough parking and too much traffic.
One of the group’s leaders, Maureen Lewis, directly blamed Measure C for damaging the neighborhood’s quality of life.
“We all knew we were moving into a school zone, but we didn’t sign up for living next to a sports and entertainment complex that is being aggressively marketed,” Lewis told a joint meeting of City Council and School Board representatives on Monday night.
School officials said that no marketing has accompanied the district’s revamped sports facilities. RBUSD chief business official Janet Redella said that no new groups are using the fields – which are particularly utilized by youth sports groups such as the American Youth Soccer Organization – and that no attempt has been made to attract new users.
“I want to make it very clear to you that we are not aggressively marketing these sites,” Redella said. “We are not advertising.”
Redella said the district is in fact required by law to open its facilities up for community use under the requirements of California’s Civic Center Act, which requires that public schools utilize their facilities as de facto civic centers.
“It’s a really tough balancing act,” Redella said.
Neighbor Stacy Palmer, who lives near Parras, said soccer games last until 8 or 9 p.m. on week nights at night and on weekends from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.
“The problem is the school is allowing every club that ever wants to use that soccer field now,” she said. “Personally, I think it it should be Redondo residents…We can’t use our front patio – not one dinner, not one breakfast out there, because if we go out there we are in the middle of a soccer team.”
Redella said that lights should be on no later than 9 p.m. and vowed to put a stop to any use beyond that time. Redella acknowledged that AYSO had been running up to three games at a time on the field – using the width of the field for younger kids’ games – but had been told to run no more than one game.
Councilman Matt Kilroy, who is a volunteer referee with AYSO, said that part of the problem may be that the organization and the sport itself are growing in popularity. He also said that playoff and all-star games that used to be elsewhere are now in Redondo. But he noted that 80 to 90 percent of the kids are indeed from Redondo Beach.
“It’s our neighbors, it’s our residents, it’s our community,” Kilroy said.
James McLeod has lived just south of the high school, on Vincent Street, for 31 years. He and his wife, Kathy, have for more than a decade tried to bring attention to problems related to parents dropping off their kids on the south side of campus. McLeod said that three times cars have actually run into his house, once stopping just short of his son’s bedroom. More chronically, he said, parents double-park and create traffic hazards, kids loiter, and the entire neighborhood is used for school parking. The school’s new entrance off of Diamond Street on the north side of campus – One Sea Hawk Way – has not helped, McLeod said. He suggested closing the south entrance.
“It’s gotten worse, it hasn’t gotten better,” McLeod said. “I am trying to be as patient as I can, but our house is basically right on the school now….My main issue is public safety.”
RBUSD board member Todd Loewenstein said that while the school will work to provide more on-site parking, the larger problem needs to be addressed in other ways.
“What we need to do, my personal feeling is, is get kids out of cars and start walking to school and biking to school,” Loewenstein said.
Lewis, who said her group includes 40 families, urged the district to complete a mitigation plan that was supposed to accompany the $1.7 million allocated for parking and traffic measures in Measure C.
“There isn’t much transparency regarding the parking and mitigation plan,” she said.
Redella said many concerns would be alleviated as construction finished, but said the district is working on some immediate remedies, such as creating baseball parking on the north side of campus, near Redondo Shores school.
“I emphasize this over and over again – we are trying to be good neighbors,” Redella said. “I understand it is not happening fast enough. As soon as modernization is over and we get a better parking plan in place, I think this is going to be better for everyone.”
McLeod said that he appreciated the administration’s efforts.
“In all the years I have lived here, this is the best staff and school board we have worked with, trust me,” he said. “In the past we have been shut down and really intimidated. Everyone has, in my opinion, gone above and beyond the call of duty in trying to figure this out.” ER