Zoning Board approves variances for new school construction
Parking for a new school building in Brownsville took center stage Wednesday at a hearing before the Fayette County Zoning Hearing Board.
Brownsville Area School District was approved for three variances that included parking, loading dock arrangements and the height of the gymnasium when it is built.
The new building would be constructed where the district’s practice fields are located; the elementary school would be on the same complex as the middle and high school. The board has authorized a maximum project cost of $18.8 million and maximum building construction cost of $15.7 million. The school is designed to accommodate about 900 students.
Greg Schrock, a civil engineer with L.R. Kimball of Pittsburgh, the architectural firm designing the project, asked the hearing board to consider merging proposed and available parking to better accommodate the growing campus. He said some of this parking goes unused, so the new school would be better suited to utilize the empty spaces. Shrock said if the district was not required to build a larger parking pad than needed, environmental and space issues would be reduced.
Jean Mangini, who lives at the corner Fayette Street and Columbus Avenue, said while she does not oppose the new school’s construction, she is concerned about parking overflow onto nearby side streets. She said because Brownsville Area High School students frequently park on Columbus Avenue and other nearby streets, there are visibility and access issues for emergency vehicles. She said parking in that area can be very congested at certain times of the day including the morning and afternoon pick-ups.
“My main concern is that when they park on Columbus Avenue, you can’t get a fire truck or emergency vehicle through,” she said.
Hearing board member Ed Payson suggested “no parking” signs be erected by affected parking areas. He said lessons would be learned if a student’s vehicle gets towed away.
Mangini said the district’s parking pass system isn’t necessarily effective in dealing with student parking, so she’s concerned that the new building’s parking plan would aggravate that further.
District Solicitor Jeremy Davis said the district is aware of parking issues and will take steps to improve the situation.
Hearing board Chairman Rob Guerriere said Luzerne Township, the borough and the school district should work together to address the parking issue.
The ZHB unanimously approved the parking variance along with two other variances sought by the district – one dealing with the new gymnasium’s height requirements and the other concerned the loading dock as it relates to deliveries for the new building.