A Los Angeles County planning official said that the county will serve a notice today to the Palm St. school that's been operating in violation of county zoning ordinances.
John Calas, deputy director of the Division of Land Use Regulation, said that county officials Tuesday denied a "clean hands" waiver to Sahag Mesrob Armenian Christian School. That denial means that a notice will be "personally served and posted on the [school] site" today, Calas said. The school will have 15 days to comply -- which, at this point, means shut down --before noncompliance fees will begin to be assessed, Calas said.
A "clean hands" waiver would have allowed the school to operate while its request for a conditional use permit made its way through the county planning process. Without the waiver, the processing of the school's request for a conditional use permit has been stopped, county officials said last month.
The initial noncompliance fee will be about $625, which can "escalate to $2,000 rather quickly," Calas said.
In addition, planning officials are conferring with County Counsel today to see if civil or criminal penalties can be pursued if the school continues to violate zoning ordinances. Criminal penalties for misdemeanor violation of the zoning code can reach $1,000 a day and possible incarceration of school officials. Civil penalties can be "whatever the court will assess," Calas said.
The 250 student school, which opened Sept. 2, has been a hot point of contention in the residential neighborhood as many neighbors have said they received little or no notice of it and the county has already warned the school that it was operating without the required conditional use permit (CUP). The school principal, however, said that the school believes it is adequately covered by the CUP that covered the site when it was the former Bienvenidos Children's Center, and that the school has worked hard to accommodate and inform the neighbors.
Coleen Sterritt, one of the neighbors who has been organizing opposition to the school, expressed satisfaction that the county is taking action.
"The county planners were very responsive to us," Sterritt said, claiming that they received 200 letters, 120-some emails, and "dozens and dozens of phone calls regarding this school." The school, on the other hand, "showed our neighborhood and community such disrespect -- it's like their agenda is their school, and their school only."
The controversy has "galvanized this community to keep it the peaceful place it has been," Sterritt said.
A call to Sahag Mesrob principal Shahe Garabedian was not returned as of press time.
UPDATE 1 PM OCT. 17: Principal Garabedian has said that the school board will meet Monday to consider a response. Story is here.
