Laserfiche WebLink
TA. - Page 215 <br /> RASMUSSEN PLANNING, ING. <br /> ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING & DESIGN <br /> Tune 15,2017 <br /> Members of the Redwood City Planning Commission. <br /> 1017 Middlefield Road <br /> Redwood City,CA 94063 <br /> Re: Additional Planning Comments Pertaining to the Rochetship Redwood City <br /> Elementary School Project Proposed at 860 Charter Street <br /> Dear Commissioners: <br /> I appreciate the City's recent response to my comments regarding the Rocketship <br /> Elementary School Project Revised Response to Comments document, Overall I found <br /> the Response to be overly general and unresponsive in terms of how significant child <br /> safety issues in particular are to be mitigated, As I have previously stated,I believe it is <br /> unreasonable to conclude that a school for small children of age five to eleven in this high <br /> intensity industrial neighborhood could be made safe. Approval of this project would put <br /> Redwood City and San Mateo County at serious future MORAL,legal and financial risk. <br /> In addition,the revised Response is not readily understandable to the reader. This is <br /> primarily because it greatly overuses referencing semi-relevant responses found <br /> elsewhere in the document. For example,in my letter alone,the reader is referred to <br /> approximately 25 other responses in the text. Although CEQA allows for referencing, <br /> the revised Response document over uses this shortcut to the point of becoming unusable <br /> and irrelevant. A test of this is to ask yourself how many references in the document you <br /> actually referred to. <br /> In my professional career as a city planning director and land use planning expert witness <br /> in the Bay Area, I have not seen a school proposal that presents anyway near the <br /> environmental,land use incompatibility,safety and undesirable crowding conditions as <br /> the proposed Project. Simply put,this Project would simply be dangerous. Student drop- <br /> offs in the morning would create significant traffic impacts on the neighboring industrial <br /> businesses because of queuing on surrounding streets. The unworkable nature of the <br /> proposed parking plan would pose significant impacts for the site and neighboring street <br /> system,particularly during drop-off and pick-up times,as well as during special school <br /> events.Walking and biking to school would be prohibited by the dangerously high <br /> volumes of auto and truck traffic on the surrounding streets. Most parents of small <br /> children would not allow them to bike or walk through this environment. <br /> The existence of barbed wire and guard dogs at neighboring businesses would also create f <br /> a substantial cooling impact on walking and biking. The surrounding industrial <br /> businesses would pose a wide-range of potential health and safety risks,including:toxic, <br /> hazardous and potentially explosive materials storage,use and transport. The aged and <br /> 1 <br /> Rasmussen Planning,Inc. - 2010[raw Canyon Place,Suite 100,San Ramon,CA 94583 • Phone:925.359.3265 • Fax:926.359.3256•wresmussenarasPWan.co n <br />