Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Council approves church expansion

By Clarence Cromwell

About 230 more students a day, eight portable classrooms and a 17,500-square-foot gymnasium are on the way to Los Gatos Christian Church School, 16845 Hicks Road--despite neighbors' fears of increased traffic and damage to the rural, residential atmosphere.

The Town Council on Aug. 5 unanimously overturned the Planning Commission's denial of the school expansion. The commission agreed with Hicks Road residents who said expansion would cram too many cars onto Hicks.

Fifteen Los Gatans addressed the council during the public hearing, some of whom also spoke at separate Planning Commission hearings regarding the church expansion and a proposal by Challenger School to build a school next to the church property. Five said they support the expansion.

But councilmembers, pointing to an April 1996 traffic study, agreed with the church that the 1,036 additional car trips a day would not cause significant problems because parents drop off and pick up their kids at times few other drivers use Hicks Road.

Steve Blanton said traffic won't be as serious as residents fear, and that Christian School parents will only use about a tenth of a mile of Hicks--the stretch between the school and Camden Avenue--when dropping off their kids. But he suggested that the school come up with a traffic circulation plan to reveal the smoothest routes for parents' cars when they drop off kids at the school. That would lessen traffic hassles for neighbors, he said.

Linda Lubeck concurred.

Blanton said the commission additionally didn't give sufficient weight to benefits the gymnasium will bring the community. The gym will give local teens an additional place for sports and other activities, he said.

Another reason to let the church expand, both Joanne Benjamin and Lubeck said, is that "it's already there," unlike the 560-student campus that Challenger School wants to put on a 45-acre plot next door.

Challenger's appeal of its Planning Commission rejection is to be heard by the Town Council on Sept. 16.

The church will begin fundraising for the new gym, now that it has approval, Los Gatos Christian Church spokesman Dale Evans said. Construction is expected to begin within 18 months.

The eight portable classrooms will be used during fall 1997, because they can't be erected and made ready in time for the upcoming school year, Evans said. But another kindergarten class can be squeezed into an existing building for now. Of the 230 additional students allowed, up to 120 will be enrolled in a new special-education program.

At least 100 will enroll in ordinary grammar school classes. The school will add an additional kindergarten class every year until enrollment grows by 100 students.

Before the hearing, the school was permitted 540 students.