It was an easy decision last week for the city’s Planning Commission to grant San Marino High School Grad Night organizers a temporary use permit to continue their prep work in the Huntington Drive parking structure attached to the Wells Fargo branch.
Commissioners unanimously approved the 90-day permit, formally requiring the volunteers to adhere to construction times permitted in San Marino — an easily obeyed condition, since the group already works within those confines on its own. The Grad Night tradition brings all of SMHS’ graduating seniors, after commencement in June, to an all-night event in the school gym, where community volunteers have assembled a surprise carnival of sorts — its theme picked by the class — as a memorable celebration, safe from the temptation of riskier party venues and activities.
Given the surprise nature of the event, the parking garage is one of the few secretive places for community volunteers — whose own children, in many cases, have graduated long ago — to work on the props and set pieces.
“The event, I believe, brings the community together,” Grad Night chair Beth Davis told the Planning Commission. “I don’t know what we’d do without the Wells Fargo space.”
Although the Grad Night tradition dates to 1956, organizers began using the Wells Fargo space more than 25 years ago, when the bank set aside a level for their use. Two years ago, the city began requiring an inspection and permitting process when the operation and its equipment became more elaborate.
“Grad Night is right up there with the Fourth of July in San Marino, perhaps more so because it’s so San Marino,” resident Evelyn Boss told the commission.
Longtime volunteer Bob Horgan added that whenever he attends SMHS class reunions and asks what classmates remember most about high school, “Invariably, they don’t say ‘CIF football’ or anything like that, they say ‘Grad Night.’”
The staff report for the meeting noted that the volunteer team had installed noise-mitigating walls and material throughout its portion of the garage. City Planning and Building Director Aldo Cervantes added that the team consistently worked from 7 a.m.-6 p.m. on Wednesdays and from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, all within permitted construction hours.
“I have personally been into the parking structure and seen that a significant amount of work has been done to the structure,” he told the commission. “This year, they did include additional sound walls and sound barriers to the entryways to the structure.”
Cervantes added that his department was exploring a more permanent solution to allow Grad Night volunteers to continue their work without having to obtain the temporary use permit.
“I don’t necessarily want to see this every year,” commission chair Jeri Wright told him in response.
SMHS Grad Night Team Gets Permit to Build Big Bash
