Aeronautics has not evaluated the site currently being acquired for construction of New Millennium High School

Peter Nichols
686 Larkin Valley Dr.
Watsonville, CA 95076
(831) 763-1895

June 22, 2001

Mr. John Dominguez
Consultant, School Facilities Planning Division
California Department of Education
660 J Street, Suite 350
Sacramento, CA 95814

Re: A portion of the site being acquired by Pajaro Valley Unified School District for New Millennium High School is outside the area approved by Aeronautics and inside the Airport's Inner Turning Zone, contrary to Department of Transportation's approval.

Dear Mr. Dominguez,

I have reviewed construction plans for NMHS prepared by WLC Architects and renderings of the construction footprint provided by DES Architects-Engineers and WLC Architects. None of these documents shows the line that delineates the area approved for the school by the Aeronautics Division of the California Department of Transportation. The DES rendering shows a line representing the "potential future aeronautical setback line," but not the line indicating the present aeronautical setback (ie. the northern boundary of the approved area described as "Alternative Site B" in the DOT's letter of approval). The rendering of "Alternative Site B" shows that the approved site is located on the border and outside of the runway's "Inner Turning Zone."

In order to determine where the proposed building site is relative to the line of Aeronautics approval, I have consulted the following:

1.) The DOT Airport Land Use Planning Handbook indicating an Inner Turning Zone arc with a radius of 4,500 ft. for Watsonville Municipal Airport. The center of the arc is located 200 ft. off the end of the airport's main runway.

2.) The plans prepared by WLC Architects and submitted for a City of Watsonville Coastal Development Permit showing the entire proposed building site and Harkins Slough Rd. The plans show a scale of 1"=80 ft. 0 in.

3.) A plat map showing the entire airport, the Edwards property and Harkins Slough Rd. also prepared by WLC Architects with a scale of 1"=446 ft. as determined by a one mile arc drawn by the architects and the length of the 4,500 ft. runway.

After careful measurements I have calculated that the plans show 72,600 square feet or 1.67 acres of the proposed school site (over 5% of the building footprint) outside of the area approved by CalTrans and within the airport's "Inner Turning Zone." According to the Airport Land Use Planning Handbook, "This zone. . .reflects the historical distribution of accident sites." Mr. Austin Wiswell assured me in a phone conversation today that his Division would not recommend a site if part of it were shown to be inside the ITZ.

My determination is based on the following measurements and calculations:

1.) The northern boundary of the proposed school site is parallel to Harkins Slough Rd. and located 1760 ft. from the northern edge of the existing roadway.

2.) The 4,500 ft. Inner Turning Zone arc crosses the western boundary of the proposed site 1730 ft. from Harkins Slough Rd., measured on a perpendicular to the road. The property therefore extends 30 ft. into the ITZ at this point.

3.) The ITZ arc crosses the eastern boundary of the proposed site 1590 ft. from Harkins Slough Rd. The site therefore extends 170 ft. into the ITZ at this point.

4.) Basic trigonometric and geometric functions were used to calculate the area of that portion of the construction site located within the ITZ.

According to the plans, the approximately 1.67 acres located within the ITZ will be primarily used for parking and will not have buildings. I suppose it is tempting to allow this use within such a questionable area, but as times change, so do facility needs. Districts often place portables within parking areas and this site may someday have a building constructed within this 1.67 acres that places a great many students at risk.

Clearly it is incumbent upon you and your department to insure the safety of students within the parameters that the state provides. DOT has already compromised their procedures by not requiring that the District seek suitable alternatives prior to acquiring this site (see my letter of May 2, 2001). If DOT will not recommend the acquisition of a site, a portion of which is located within an airport ITZ, the boundaries of this site and the building plans must, at the very least, be modified to comply with the minimum standards DOT has adopted to recommend this sites for school use.

Yours very truly,

//Signed//

Peter Nichols

c.c. Terry McHenry, PVUSD
R. Austin Wiswell, Department of Transportation, Division of Aeronautics
Dan Carl, California Coastal Commission
John Doughty, Community Development Director, City of Watsonville
Chuck Carter, Mayor, City of Watsonville
Bruce Hancock, State Allocation Board
Fred Keeley, California Assembly

See Also: Why there will be no Aeronautics evaluation (May 17, 2000)