The full redevelopment of Palmer High School is one step closer to fruition after the city Planning Commission approved all the changes needed for the expansion on Wednesday. The proposal from Colorado Springs School District 11 is a $100 million project expanding both the classroom spaces and at hletic facilities at the high school by unifying the school facilities on either side of Boulder Street into a single campus block. The planning commissioners allowed for the block of Boulder Street to be vacated so it could be replaced by the high school campus and have the area rezoned to a specialized designation of the downtown form-based code. The commission also approved the overall land-use plan for the high school. District 11’s executive director of engagement, Jessica Wise, said the project was a continuation of the district’s commitment to the area since the current Palmer High School building was dedicated in 1938. “Today we stand at a similar moment, faced with the question of do we reinvest in education at the center of our great city?” Wise said. The first phase of the Palmer High School renovation is underway after the district began demolishing a wing of the school to build a new wing for classes and a performing arts center. Future phases will include building a track and football field across the current Boulder Street and a large indoor athletics building. While the zoning change and land-use plan passed unanimously, the board added conditions to the approval of the Boulder Street closure. The board wanted an agreement between Colorado Springs and District 11 that the property would revert to city use if the school district ever stopped needing it. They also asked the district to continue to allow pedestrian access to Boulder Street outside of school hours during the construction. Planning Commission chairwoman Andrea Slattery said that while maintaining public access along Boulder was important, she wanted the district to be able to secure its campus. Vacating the road to cars was an easier call. “The benefits of taking vehicular traffic outside of the campus will outweigh people discovering new routes of traffic,” Slattery said. Multiple sophomores at Palmer High School said that closing Boulder Street would make the campus safer during emergencies and faster for students to get between buildings. School security officer Dennis Moore said that the Boulder crossings were a safety risk that needed to be monitored. “It will be one right-of-way that I will not have to serve, that kids will not have to come across and that cars will not have to deal with,” Moore said. Two neighbors opposed closing the street because traffic would be diverted to intersections without traffic lights. A traffic study held during the temporary closure of Boulder Street over the last few months found that the only turns impacted by the change were ones from St. Vrain Street to Nevada Avenue in both directions. No other intersections experienced major traffic issues during the closure. The other issue raised on Wednesday was the demolition of three homes on the northern block along St Vrain. The land-use plan includes tearing down the homes, which are more than 100 years old and are owned by the Weber-Wahsatch Historic District, to build the school’s athletic complex. District 11 has already purchased the properties to prepare for the future phase of work. Cheryl Brown and Tim Scanlon from the Historic Uptown Neighborhood Association asked the school district to consider keeping the homes and using them for teacher housing. “We should encourage reinvestment in our historic districts, not redevelopment or clearance,” Scanlon said. Wise said the district was in negotiations to relocate the houses instead of tearing them down. City Urban Planning Manager Ryan Tefertiller said it was the first time since 2009 that a building had requested to be added to the area covered by the downtown form-based code, which are special zoning rules that apply to the heart of downtown Colorado Springs. Tefertiller said the school had to receive one zoning designation if the district wanted to treat it as a single plot of land. The district and city planners felt that the form-based zone would allow the school to serve as a transition between the downtown businesses and the nearby residential areas. The Downtown Review Board already approved the project in November. The decisions on Boulder Street and the rest of the project will go to the Colorado Springs City Council early next year for final approval. ...read more read less