1. The District, in the Wilber Smith Parking Analysis and in public hearing testimony by Mr. Rhodes of Wilber Smith represented that there are 904 junior and senior high school students age 16 1/2 and over. Applying the Zoning Ordinance requirement in § 817.5 of 0.25 times the 904 number equates to 226 qualifying students (assuming they are licensed). The Mt. Lebanon Zoning Officer, Planner, Engineer, Traffic Engineer and Planning Board have agreed with this calculation and 226 figure.
2. Within the Wilber Smith Parking Analysis is a Parking Management Plan (PMP). This PMP is an integral part of the overall District plans and has been accepted by the District without objection (see attachment). The PMP indicated the District will allocate only 203 off street parking spaces out of 542 spaces to students.
3. However, in testimony during the public Hearing on January 24, 2011, and therefore in the record, the high school Principal, Dr. Ron Davis, responding to a Commission question as to how many student parking passes had actually been issued, testified that there had been 285 student parking passes issued as of the middle of December, 2010, and “typically we cut off at 315”.
4. How does the District explain the 285 actual and 315 cut off vs. PMP of 203?
5. The District’s 285 “actual” figure was then disputed by testimony and documentation presented and submitted by resident Cindy Murphy. Mrs. Murphy, in seeking a student parking pass for her son, quoted the District high school staff employee authorized and responsible for issuing student parking passes that this year 306 student parking spaces had been issued against a limit of 315!
6. These discrepancies, in testimony and record indicate reported actual student parking pass issuances exceed the Zoning requirements by between 59-80 spaces, and the official PMP by from 82-103 spaces, depending upon whether either 285 or 306 “actual” passes have been issued. How can this be satisfactorily explained?
7. Proceeding further, the District claims in the Wilber Smith Parking Analysis and in Asst. District Facility Manager Mr. Rick Marciniak’s Hearing testimony, that there are 241 individual District employees based at the high school. However, resident Mrs. Paula Bongiorno testified and provided District documentation that the District reported having 282 employees based at the high school in PlanCon Form E (March, 2010); and, in the District 2009 CAFR 294 employees were reported as being based at the high school. How can such contradictions be explained or tolerated?
8. Taking even the lower District figure of 241 employees, and adding them to the reported student pass issuances, reported above, of 285 and 306 results in parking space demand of 526 to 547 off-street spaces vs. the PMP total available supply of 542 spaces.
9. While some may consider this to be “acceptable for horseshoes” it begs the fact that the figures in item 8 immediately above do not include PMP parking space requirements for:
· Visitors – 32 spaces
· Handicapped – 19 spaces
· Police – 1 space
52 spaces
In other words, the PMP is profoundly flawed and actual student parking pass issuances grossly exceed the Zoning Ordinance calculation and District assertions. This notice also provides doubt as to the adequacy of off-street and shared parking spaces to meet actual and planned demand and needs.
These matters should be resolved prior to any overall and final Commission project approvals.
Links to the January 24, 2011 Public Hearing:
