Item 18 - Appeal Application of Conditional Use Permit to Allow the Expansion of a Private School

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Appeal Application No. 2025-02 – Forty Martyrs Armenian Church Middle School (5311 W. McFadden Avenue) Exhibit 6 – Response to Appeal Comments Page 7 of 19 2. Appellant Request: CEQA Misapplication and Class 14 Inapplicability. Analysis of Issue: As of January 6, 2026, the California Department of Education (CDE) lists the status of the Ari Guiragos Minassian Armenian School as active. Additionally, the status of the school on the CDE directory is not relevant to the CEQA determination for the project. Section 15314 (Class 14) of the CEQA Guidelines consists of minor additions to existing schools within existing school grounds where the addition does not increase original student capacity by more than 25 percent or ten classrooms, whichever is less. As stated in the staff report, the proposed addition will increase the student capacity eight percent, which is significantly less than 25 percent, and it only proposes to add four classrooms and one laboratory. When a CEQA exemption is identified and can be applied to a proposed project, additional environmental review is not necessary. The proposed project qualified for a Class 14 exemption, pursuant to the CEQA guidelines, which exempted the project from further environmental review. Moreover, pursuant to Section 15300.2 (a) through (f) of the CEQA guidelines, exceptions to the CEQA exemptions do not apply to the proposed project because the project is not located on an environmentally sensitive location nor on a hazardous waste site, does not have significant cumulative impact nor significant effect according to the focused traffic study and parking demand analysis documents that are part of the Planning Commission staff report (Exhibit 3 to the February 3, 2026 City Council staff report), and it will not cause substantial adverse change of a historical resource. Nevertheless, the applicant prepared focused traffic studies and parking management plans to identify any potential negative impacts of the proposed project. The technical studies did not identify negative impacts that would hinder the project from operating. On the contrary, the studies identified mitigation measures to prevent potential traffic and parking impacts to the neighboring properties. As stated on pages five and six of the Planning Commission staff report (Exhibit 3 to the February 3, 2026 City Council staff report), the school would continue to