Santa Fe Elementary School Expansion Project

Santa Fe Elementary School Expansion Project

The proposed project would expand the campus of Santa Fe Elementary School with the District acquisition of a 3.80-acre City-owned parcel (APN 261-150-056) and the construction of two new buildings (Building 700 and 800) to serve TK, preschool and kindergarten students, a new parking lot ("Parking lot 3"), and reconfigure Parking lot 2 which includes a new pickup/drop-off area. The proposed project would increase student capacity on campus by 275 transitional kindergarten, preschool, and kindergarten students at the Santa Fe Elementary School (SFES) campus, and this would increase SFES's capacity from 816 to 1,091 students. To accommodate the increase in student capacity, nine new staff members would be hired and eight staff members would be relocated from other District campuses to SFES. Building 700 would be one story (approximately 18 feet and 8 inches in height) and would be located in the northwestern corner of the project site. Building 700 would consist of 5,823 square feet, the roof overhang would further shade 1,860 square feet of outdoor area. The building would consist of four preschool classrooms, five storage areas, 10 restrooms for the students, one staff restroom, four clean up areas, two teacher work rooms, a janitor area, and one area to house the buildings electrical components. Building 800 would be one story (approximately 18 feet and 8 inches in height) and would be located in the northern side of the project site, north of building 200A. Building 800 would consist of 10,358 square feet; the roof overhang would further shade with 3,686 square feet of outdoor area. Building 800 would consist of four TK and three kindergarten classrooms, eight student restrooms, one staff restroom, four clean up areas, nine storage areas, one janitor area, one area to house the buildings electrical components, and four teach work rooms. New walkways, landscaping, turf, new soft fall surface play areas, and decorative metal gates and fencing would be installed. The existing Parking lot 2 driveway turnaround to the southeast would be reconfigured to connect to Howard Street. Towards the center of campus (the middle of parking lot 2), a new ingress-egress driveway would be installed leading to a parent pick-up/drop-off area to the west of building 700 with two one-way lanes, and would be bordered by a walkway to the north. Improvements to Parking lot 2 would result in a reduction of seven parking stalls compared to existing conditions. Five trash enclosures would be installed north of the reconfigured connection to Howard Street. Additionally, the proposed project includes new landscaping along Orange Avenue, restriping of the Parking lot 2, a new entrance sign, and existing sidewalk along Orange Avenue would be widened. The proposed project would construct a new parking lot ("Parking lot 3") on the northwestern side of the project site, adjacent to building 700, with one ingress-egress driveway from parking lot 2 providing access to parking lot 3. Parking lot 3 would consist of 49 parking stalls. which would include two accessible parking stalls, one van accessible parking stall, one van accessible EV charging, one standard EV charging station, and five EV charging capable stalls. Compared to existing conditions, the proposed project would result in an increase of 42 parking stalls. The construction of the proposed project would occur in one phase. Construction is anticipated to last approximately 12 months, with construction starting in 2025. On May 22, 2025, the Porterville Unified School District Board of Trustee (1) adopted the Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration, (2) approved the proposed project, (3) exempted portion of parcel APN 261-150-056 acquired by PUSD from City of Porterville City of Porterville local zoning, and (4) adopted the mitigation monitoring and reporting program.

Porterville

Tulare

Citywide, Southern California

Tulare