By: Dale King
After the Planning and Zoning Board and city staff both gave Pine Crest School’s plan their approval, the City Council followed suit Tuesday night by approving the proposal on a unanimous 5-0 vote.
The council’s OK allows the school to build an approximately 5,808 square foot, two-story Learning Commons Building, which includes a student union and up to three flex space classrooms on the second floor.
Certain minor future improvements will also be made to the tennis pavilion, maintenance building expansion, fine arts building expansion, swimming pool, concessions building, bleachers, scoreboard and running track.
Senior city planner Heather Hansen explained to council members that the school’s request “reaffirms improvements applied for in 2008 that have never been built.”
The first floor of the new structure will include a student union, gathering space and a covered patio. It will replace an existing temporary cover over a patio that was installed during the pandemic. Classrooms will be created on the second floor.
Hansen said some changes and additions were made to the conditions for the project, among them:
- A limit of 1,000 students at the school for pre-school to grade 8 (In other words, no high school can be built.)
- Outdoor lights will be turned off at 8, not 9:30, to accommodate neighbors.
- No outdoor construction can be done on Sundays or holidays.
- Addition of service yard fencing surrounding the maintenance building.
She said the new building will not be visible from outside the school grounds.
Attorney Lauren Odom, representing the school, said Pine Crest was built in 1971 and has been expanded as need was required.
An architect who crafted the new structure said it was designed to match the school’s current style and building material. “The architecture will blend with the surroundings,” he noted.
No one spoke against the proposal at the public hearing.