Landscape Improvements

[The 1996 Nueva School Master Plan Page 15-17]

The landscape improvements incorporated into the 2012 Master Plan Update reflect the following objectives:

• Strengthen and clarify site connectivity and accessibility (vehicular and pedestrian).

• Enhance existing and propose new outdoor spaces associated with the Middle School and Lower School

• Provide opportunities in the landscape to engage students with sites that support educational programs, promote sustainability concepts, and encourage stewardship.

• Provide spaces for play, sites for congregation, and landscape elements that support communication and connectivity.

• Create and maintain defensible spaces around buildings

Landscape Guidelines

Landscape designs including material selection and spacing, lighting, fencing and tree removal will be submitted for Town review as par t of the individual development projects. The following approach to landscape issues will guide future landscape design.

Landscape Material Selection

New paving will be limited to high-traffic pedestrian paths, cour tyards and vehicular surfaces. Paving will be high albedo, consisting of recycled materials and porous when feasible. Pedestrian paths can be surfaced with a natural/recycled accessible material such as compacted gravel or soil.

Play areas will be paved with an accessible, recycled (when feasible) safety surface. This surface will be lively and engaging, such as colored rubber paving. Paving depths will comply with fall zones per the latest California Guidelines.

Exotic and/or high-water need plants will be limited to agriculture zones or lawns. Native and/or droughtadapted plants ideally suited to The Nueva School Campus will be used to support sustainability goals, promote ecological awareness and create ecological connectivity between the inhabited spaces and the natural areas of the site.

All materials will be selected to minimize fire hazards. New trees will be located so as to not interfere with emergency vehicular access.

Security Fencing and Gate

Fencing and gates are proposed in areas of the site to limit movement into and/or out of sensitive campus landscape areas. Any new site fencing will meet Town standards.

Landscape Lighting & Signage

Site lighting will be limited to parking areas and primary circulation paths for wayfinding and security. No lighting at the field is proposed. All fixtures will be low wattage and dark sky compliant to minimize negative environmental impacts and prevent light intrusion into surrounding natural areas and neighborhoods. All site lighting and signage will be designed in accordance with Town Guidelines.

Tree Removal

The school’s identity is in part tied to its location “in a woodland.” As such, one of the objectives in the creation of the 2012 Master Plan Update was to maintain as many trees and large shrubs as possible while still meeting development goals. Tree and large shrub removal will be selective and limited to those absolutely necessar y for proposed improvements.

The proposal to improve the landscape screening along Skyline Boulevard will mitigate any tree removal resultant from the entry drive relocation and parking improvements in this area.

Landscape Improvements

New landscape improvements proposed include:

• Reforestation of the Hear t of Campus

• Nueva School Orchard

• Lower School Outdoor Play Areas

• Middle School Courtyard

• Terraced Garden near the Existing Cafe

Crocker Mansion

A new landscaped courtyard facing the historic entrance to the Crocker Mansion will replace most of the existing parking lot in this location. The courtyard will be planted with low profile ground cover and shrubs, preserving visibility of the mansion and providing clear pedestrian connections between the Mansion, the new Multi-Purpose Building and the rest of campus. Parking spaces will be redistributed along the Lower Loop Road, maintaining the same number of parking spaces in this area of campus.

“The most exciting thing going on right now on campus is the potential the garden has to be a food source. It should not be about me (the planter), but us (the community). If every grade had a plot, all students could help with the sustainability of the campus in terms of offering the plants they grow to the Café.”

- Stephanie Engelhaupt, 2nd Grade Teacher