Petition for Transfer Territory from Sausalito Marin City School District to Mill Valley School District

2023050382

Marin County Office of Education (MCOE)

NOE - Notice of Exemption

5/16/2023

5/16/2023

Jonathan Lenz

Marin County Office of Education

Secretary Designee for the Marin County Committee on School District Organization

Lead/Public Agency

PO Box 4925/1111 Las Gallinas Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94913

(415) 499-5850

jlenz@marinschool.org

37°52'27.1"N 122°31'31.5"W

Tennessee Valley Way and Headlands Avenue

94941

052-560-01, 052-560-02, 052-560-03, 052-560-04, 052-560-05, 052-560-10

SR 101

Tamalpais Valley School, Sausalito Marin City School Districs,

San Francisco Bay

Other

Section 15061(b)(3)

The California Environmental Quality Act (Section 21000, et. seq. of the California Public Resources Code, hereafter CEQA) requires analysis of agency approvals of discretionary projects. A “project,” under CEQA, is defined as “the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.” The acquisition of property by a public agency is a project as defined by CEQA. Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3), an activity is covered by the general rule that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. The activity is not subject to CEQA where it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment. A transfer of territory from one school district to another would shift the home-to-school travel patterns between the existing schools and those in the new district. The change in traffic patterns has the potential to increase several related environmental impacts, including traffic congestion, vehicle miles traveled, air pollution, and noise. There may also be impacts if the receiving schools do not have sufficient available capacity and their facilities must be expanded to accommodate the additional students. Currently all students within the Tennessee Glen Community already attend MVSD schools through interdistrict transfers. As a result, no changes would occur in the near term if the territory transfer were completed. However, the transfer would permanently change the districts’ boundaries and the number of students residing in the ten residences may increase in the future. Figure 2, School Locations Map, shows the location of schools in both SMCSD and MVSD that may be impacted by the proposed territory transfer. This figure also shows the travel routes and travel distances to the schools under existing and proposed school district boundaries. Table 1 identifies these schools and applies travel distances to determine total Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) under the two scenarios. Table 1 demonstrates that students attending schools in MVSD would travel shorter distances than if attending SMCSD schools (9.3 miles vs?? ???????? miles). This reduction in VMT shows that the proposed territory transfer would not create significant impacts related to traffic related air pollution or noise. Further, the negligible volume of traffic generated by home-to-school trips by only ten residences is not sufficient to create traffic impacts. As shown in Figure 1 and Table 1, the proposed MVSD schools are closer to Tennessee Glen Community than the existing assigned SMCSD schools. As a result of the closer distance, the territory transfer would result in less vehicle miles traveled, air pollution generated by vehicles, and traffic-related noise. The second test is whether the territory transfer from SMCSD to MVSD schools would require expansion of any campus, which might result in a significant impact. Both districts have experienced declining enrollment and have available student capacity as a result. The proposed territory transfer would involve only ten residences, and even if these homes are occupied by large families, the receiving schools in MVSD have considerable capacity to accommodate the additional students. As demonstrated above, the proposed territory transfer would not create any impact and is an activity is covered by the general rule that CEQA applies only to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. This activity is not subject to CEQA because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment.