The proposed STEM school site on Blaine and Canyon Crest, contains two parcels of property.
One belonging to UCR, the other to the city of Riverside.
This Thursday, Feb 16 at 9am at city hall, RUSD will be presenting to the city’s planning commission a proposal to change the zoning on the city owned property in order to build the school. After hearing the presentation, the commission will make its recommendation to the city council for a final vote.
Make an E Comment, Call in or Zoom it.
We need everyone to come to the meeting or contact the planning commission to let them know our concerns about these possible changes and the impact they will have on our community.
Because this is a zoning meeting, it has been highly recommended that we focus our opposition to the zone change on issues that we feel will impact our community. Key factors to consider are:
- This is not a neighborhood school where traditionally students walk to. This is a commuter school bringing school buses and hundreds of cars into our area.
- District’s proposal indicates 1,200 students and 60 staff members. The proposal does not address the need for a parking lot to accommodate this many people. There are no places for parents to line up when dropping off and picking up students on Blaine, Canyon Crest, Rustin and Linden.
- The proposal is to have the flow of school traffic go from Blaine to Canyon Crest then right onto the narrow parking lot by the ball fields, then exiting onto Rustin. Rustin is a very narrow two lane street already jammed with apt. cars parking on both sides of the street. Traffic from the STEAM school on the corner of Rustin and Linden already is impacting Linden and Rustin.
- There is no legal parking/waiting on either side of Blaine.
- UCR will begin the 2nd phase of building a 1,600 student dorm from Blaine towards Linden across from the proposed STEM site. The parking lot for the dorm will be similar to the one near Watkins with egress and ingress onto Blaine. This will severely impact traffic flow around Blaine and Canyon Crest
- With the 1,260 STEM population, along with 1,600 UCR dorm students, rezoning will result in nearly 3,000 people crammed into a very small block area.
- Canyon Crest is a two lane road already jammed with RTA buses, commuter cars, cyclists and pedestrians.
- Rezoning will eliminate the only developed Park and Rec facility in our community. We may lose our baseball/softball and soccer fields . This field is used often by UCR intramural sports, community sport clubs and other community organizations needing a large field.
- Less than a 1/2 mile from the proposed school, plans are to tear down the old Kmart on 3rd and Iowa and construct a 1-3 bedroom complex adding hundreds of cars onto Blaine/3rd and Iowa.
- Less than 1/2 mile from the proposed school site is the new warehouse on the corner of Watkins and Spruce, which will now bring commercial trucks into our neighborhood.
- With the STEM traffic, UCR dorm(s) traffic, the new apt. complex at Kmart traffic, the warehouse on Spruce and Watkins trucks, the cross town commuters by passing the freeway, traffic jams already around the North High School, University Heights Middle and Highland Elementary school, rezoning this property is detrimental in increasing harmful carbon emissions from cars, buses and trucks into the air affecting especially those with health issues, our children and the elderly living in our neighborhoods.
- We must first ask for a denial for this zone change or a least ask for a postponement on rezoning until an in-depth traffic and environmental study independent of the district is conducted.
- We must demand that the district present a detailed plan to the commission and to the community addressing our concerns with traffic, parking and environmental issues before a decision is made to rezone, something the district has denied us for years.
We need you to contact the planning commission expressing your opposition to rezoning the city property.
Email the commissioners at fandrade@riversideca.gov. There is no individual email for each commissioner. Your email will be disseminated to each commissioner.
You are limited to 3 minutes if participating orally on Thursday, Feb 16 at 9am.
- Speak in person on Thursday, Feb16 at city hall.
- Calling in at (669) 900-6833 and enter Meeting ID: 926 9699 1265. Press star 9 (*9) to request to speak. Individuals in the queue will be prompted to press star 6 (*6) to unmute and speak.
- By zoom at: https://zoom.us/j/92696991265 . Select the “raise hand” function to request to speak. An on-screen message will prompt you to “unmute” and speak.
Follow along with the meeting via www.RiversideCA.gov/Meeting or Riverside TV
cable channels,
Please pass this along to family and neighbors. Any additional comments to add to the list are welcomed.
UCR will be holding the first of two community meetings to discuss a proposed parking structure on Monday, April 22. The meeting will be held from 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm in Room J-102 of the Bannockburn Housing Complex, located at 3637 Canyon Crest Drive, Riverside, CA 92507 – Note: Parking will be free, however please park in the North Bannockburn parking lot.
