DMUSD extends Heights rebuild review, reschedules meeting

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Del Mar Union School District has canceled its regular board meeting for March and has extended the public review timeline for the environmental review of the Del Mar Heights rebuild.

On Feb 20, the district published its notice of intent to adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) for the Heights rebuild, a determination that with mitigation the proposed project would have no significant adverse impacts on the environment. A public review period was set through March 23 and the board was scheduled to consider the MND at its meeting on March 25.

On March 18, the board held an emergency meeting to discuss issues related to the COVID-19 virus crisis, canceling the March 25 meeting and scheduling a special board meeting on April 14. The environmental review document will be considered at that meeting and the district will extend the public review period through March 30 at 5 p.m.

All written comments must be addressed to Chris Delehanty, executive director of capital programs and technology, and emailed to cdelehanty@dmusd.org or mailed to 11232 El Camino Real San Diego, CA 92130. Any email or mailing that is received after 5 p.m. on March 30 regardless of the date of mailing, will not be accepted or considered.

All environmental documents can found electronically on the district’s webpage at https://www.dmusd.org/Page/8854

On Feb. 24, Del Mar Union School District and Baker Nowicki Design Studio held a meeting and submitted associated information for the Heights rebuild to the Division of the State Architect (DSA) as part of a pre-check prior to final DSA submittal. According to Delehanty, this pre-check process allows the district and DSA to review whether there are issues regarding the proposed project, providing the district the opportunity to address issues and make changes before seeking board approval.

“No meetings to apply for, or begin, the DSA approval process will be scheduled prior to the board’s approval of CEQA documents and the project approval,” Delehanty said.