Category Archives: Preservation District
City Treasure Will Get New Life—Midtown’s Old Marshall School
Maybe you’re old enough to remember the porcelain water fountains and wooden banister staircases; maybe you’re just charmed by the past. But when you walk inside the wooden double doors of our neighborhood’s Old Marshall School on 27th and G Streets you enter days gone by. Beware though, classroom chalkboard scribblings warn of ghosts and you’ll have to pick your way through forgotten furniture and abandoned remodel efforts.
If the building could speak it would tell you that there are not many renovation opportunities left in Midtown like Marshall School. Find the deal, the money and the time to bring me back. I am ready to serve.
School Board Trustee Ellen Cochrane and the district worked to find the deal, and the school board will vote to transform this faded lady into housing for midtown. But, thankfully, the integrity of the building will remain a beautiful historic facade, with modern residences on the inside. Much thanks to the New Era Marshall School Neighborhood Association and the neighbors of Midtown for helping to make this happen.
The school was built in 1903 and has 16 classrooms. There is an additional annex building that was built by the Boy Scouts a couple of decades ago. Old Marshall sits on 1.18 acres and is surrounded by a large parking lot. In its past lives the school has been a public school, center for the California Montessori Project, The MET and an Adult Education/Child Development Program. It’s been vacant now for many years.
During the discussion about the school’s future the community was fully engaged and asked to submit any reuse ideas or tell us about a successful re-purposing of a similar building. All ideas were considered.
SCUSD is not in the real estate business, so the firm Overland Pacific and Cutler (real estate re-use expert) was hired to help the district find the best solutions for Old Marshall and other surplus properties that have no further use as school sites.
Until the renovation begins, take a walk down G Street. You’ll find a faded lady surrounded by a chain link fence. Listen closely and you might hear the muted laughter of schoolchildren and the whisper of bells. In her next life, neighborhood-treasure Old Marshall will carry history forward and who knows, maybe a few ghosts.
McKinley Village Agenda Item for Tonight
In addition to trying to replace the EIR with an insufficient rewrite, the item covers other changes to the McKinley Village plan, including variances for driveway width. Item 15 should come up fairly quickly. Open session starts at 6:00pm.
Public Hearings
Public hearings may be reordered by the Mayor at the discretion of the legislative bodies.
15. McKinley Village Master Plan Project (P08-086) [Noticed 04/14/2017; Passed for Publication 04/18/2017; Published 04/21/2017] File ID: 2017-00589 Location: District 3 Recommendation: Conduct a Public Hearing and upon conclusion pass: 1) a Resolution rescinding Resolution No. 2014-0102 that certified the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for McKinley Village and adopted the Mitigation Monitoring Plan, and rescinding project approval Resolution Nos. 2014-0103, 2014-0104, 2014-0105, 2014-0106; 2) an Ordinance repealing Ordinance No. 2014-0011; 3) an Ordinance repealing Ordinance No. 2014-0012; 4) a Resolution recertifying a Revised EIR and adopting a Mitigation Monitoring Plan; 5) an Ordinance adopting a Development Agreement; 6) a Resolution approving the General Plan Amendment of 48.8 acres from Planned Development to Traditional Neighborhood Medium Density Residential; 7) an Ordinance to Rezone from Heavy Industrial (M-2) to Single-Unit or Duplex Dwelling (R-1A PUD), Multi-Unit Dwelling (R-2A PUD), and Residential Mixed Use (RMX PUD) zones; 8) a Resolution approving the PUD Establishment to create the McKinley Village PUD Guidelines and Schematic Plan; 9) a Resolution approving the Bikeway Master Plan Amendment to incorporate the bikeway network for the McKinley Village project; and 10) a Resolution approving a Master Parcel Map to subdivide one parcel into twelve large lot parcels on 48.8 acres; a Subdivision Tentative Map to subdivide the site for a residential subdivision, park, and recreation center comprised of 384 parcels on 48.8 acres; Subdivision Modifications to allow nonstandard street sections; Site Plan and Design Review for the construction of 312 single-unit dwellings, 24 multi-unit dwellings, and a recreation center; and the Driveway Variances to reduce the width of the proposed driveways from 24 feet to 20 feet for all proposed courts.
Contact: Tom Buford, Senior Planner, (916) 808-7931; Evan Compton, Senior Planner, (916) 808-5260, Community Development Department
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