Forest Grove Elementary School, founded in 1959, is located in Pacific Grove nestled near forested residential neighborhoods and the Rip Van Winkle Open Space.  It serves grades K through 5.

Based on the results of the Landscape Master Plan created for the school, a priority area for development was determined to be the school entry circulation. The current circulation had many issues: there were no sidewalks to the campus, the vehicular drop off was congested with competing interests: parking, school bus parking/drop off, and parent drop off, and there was not enough staff parking. In turn this created traffic backups on the arterial street, Congress Avenue and frustration among parents, school staff, and bus drivers.

Improvements included the addition of sidewalks to campus, a dedicated left hand turn lane on Congress to enter the pickup/drop off area, a defined parent drop off/pick up queue-lane on Congress to alleviate congestion, and a dedicated area for vehicular drop off and school bus parking in front of the school with a safe passing lane. In addition, the adjacent high school parking lot was redesigned to accommodate more shared parking with the elementary school and more staff parking was integrated into the school’s upper parking lot. Defined parallel parking along Congress added more parking opportunities as well.

In order for this projects to be successful, it went through many design reviews with the school board, included public review, and close coordination with the school’s staff.