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Board debates Francesca Street turnaround proposal amid student-safety concerns
Summary
Trustees and staff debated a proposed turnaround and parking plan at Redondo Union High School that would use adjacent city property; the city prefers opening the gate and routing one-way traffic through campus, a prospect trustees warned could increase pedestrian risk and shift congestion to nearby residential streets.
Board members and district staff spent an extended portion of the Sept. 30 meeting debating a proposed Francesca Street turnaround and parking reconfiguration at Redondo Union High School.
District staff and the architects presented a plan that would create a two-lane turnaround and add parking immediately adjacent to the high school to reduce vehicle stacking on Diamond Street. The plan as shown would require use of land north of the current gate that is city‑owned; district officials said the design aims to keep the gate closed and provide drop‑off and a safe walking corridor from the sidewalk into campus.
City staff and some council representatives have favored a different approach: opening the gate and making Francesca a one‑way thoroughfare from Diamond to Vincent Avenue, which the city’s traffic study suggested would disperse vehicles. District administrators, the high‑school principal and several trustees raised repeated safety concerns about admitting through traffic across a busy campus pedestrian area. “Student safety is paramount,” one board member said, noting that opening the gate could place students crossing paths with steady streams of vehicles and increase risks for cyclists and students on e‑bikes.
Architects described alternatives including shifting the turnaround north (reducing city encroachment) and a smaller roundabout that could be built entirely on district property if the city will not grant an easement. Board members asked staff to obtain more detailed traffic counts, alternative concept drawings that fit within district property, and to place formal diagrams and proposals before the city council for public hearing and community input. Several trustees said they would not support opening the gate to through traffic without concrete, independently verifiable safety mitigations.
Next steps: staff will pursue additional design permutations that minimize city property use, return with quantified parking counts and safety assessments, and coordinate with the city to put the plan on a public city council agenda for broader community review.
