The province has approved a new school for the West end, but the question remains, where will it be built?
A developer is proposing Franklin Yard, which is located next to Centennial Park, as the best place to put it.
Landscaper and Architect with Trace Planning and Design Jim Scott says there are three main things their development would focus on.
“We want to make sure it was a great site for kids that it worked great in context with the parks, make sure that we didn’t leave the Hillcrest or Bessborough sites behind and that we could do enough develop around it to help create tax revenue back to the city to help support some of the things that need to be done to put a school in Franklin Yard,” Scott says.
They are proposing a 15 acre piece of land where the school would be built, but it would also be surrounded by trails and other business and residential development.
With the surrounding recreational fields, Scott says the schools would likely be able to use that land as well.
Scott says they have been in discussions with the city, but he stressed this is just a proposal at this point.
“We’ve only showed them the site. We have talked about some of the things we would need to develop that site. The city is now aware. It probably isn’t to the point where the city and province are in discussions yet, but at least the city knows that we are looking at it and we have begun to conceptually think about trails and roads.”
Many Bessborough parents want to see the school built on the same piece of land where the school currently stands.
John Steeves is a Bessborough alumni, and he also has a child who currently attends the school.
“80 per cent of our population walk to school or are within walking distance. The majority of the people that we have polled, the responses of over 160 households would like to see the school built on the same site. This is important to stay in the west end. If you are to build the site a couple of kilometres away, parents now have to bus or drive their kids, and it’s an inconvenience. If you were to be rebuilding a store, it wouldn’t make any sense to move two miles down the road when 80 per cent of your clientele is right there, ” Steeves says.
In a poll of the Hillcrest School parents, the preferred site was Franklin Yard.
The other potential location at this point is beside Bernice MacNaughton School, on a piece of land the province owns.
The province has the final say as to where the new west end school will be built.
