Planning Commission approves Schools of the Sacred Heart enrollment increase with neighborhood conditions

The San Francisco Planning Commission on Thursday approved a conditional use authorization to raise enrollment ceilings at the Schools of the Sacred Heart’s Broadway campus, a school representative and neighborhood group said.

The vote, which carried unanimously, lets the independent school incrementally increase total enrollment from 850 to 1,050 students and raises faculty and staff caps modestly to 205. Planning staff recommended approval with conditions after the school and the Pacific Heights Residents Association negotiated a private agreement to address traffic and neighborhood concerns.

Jody Knight, counsel for the school, told commissioners the campus can absorb new students without physical expansion and has committed to a stepped increase over multiple years. “We have entered into an agreement with the Pacific Heights Residents Association to support the project,” Knight said during the presentation. Ann Marie Kreitzark, the school’s president, described the school’s scholarship and outreach programs and said the additional capacity would expand those offerings.

Terry McGuire, president of the Pacific Heights Residents Association, said the association negotiated enrollment caps and a requirement that the commission hold a public hearing before the final increment of 50 students is approved. “Our agreement established enrollment caps for future academic years with the requirement that there be a public hearing prior to approval of the last increase of 50 students,” McGuire said.

Commissioners asked staff and the sponsor to write monitoring and reporting provisions into the permit. Commissioner Moore successfully added an amendment that the commission would hold an informational hearing when enrollment reaches the 1,000-student threshold to review traffic and compliance with the agreement; that amendment was folded into the approval. Commissioner Hillis and other members praised the process of neighborhood negotiation and the school’s transportation management measures.

The conditional use authorization approves the stepped increase and requires continued monitoring of transportation impacts, periodic reporting to planning staff, and an informational commission hearing before the last enrollment increment is implemented. The motion passed 5–0.

The commission packet records the existing enrollment cap at 850 students, a proposed cap of 1,050, and an increase in faculty/staff from 200 to 205. The school said no construction is proposed and that the additional students will be accommodated within the existing structures; the planning department cited a categorical exemption for the project’s scope.

Next steps: the permit conditions will be incorporated into a written resolution and compliance will be monitored under the planning department’s standard reporting conditions.