EDMONTON - A new suburban battle is brewing as city hall makes plans to set aside eight surplus school sites for seniors housing.
Residents around each site will be getting written notice from the city late this month, followed by a public hearing and a decision from council is expected in October.
The city says these residential developments are needed because Edmonton’s seniors population is growing, and there won’t be enough appropriate housing options throughout the city.
But neighbours say the city is pushing plans through too fast, and not giving them a say on how their neighbourhoods develop. No one is taking an overall look to make sure the neighbourhoods still have enough park space, and no one talked to residents to make sure seniors housing is really want’s needed on each of those green fields.
“It’s just a huge issue,” said Neil Dunwald, civics director for Blue Quill Community League. “Hopefully we can bring it around to where a little more democracy is part of the decision-making process.
“Three weeks (between the official notice and the public information session) doesn’t even give us time to get it into the community newspaper,” he said.
“We want an area plan. In our community at Blue Quill, a good number are seniors. We’re not against seniors housing. It’s just that the city is proceeding with Century Park individually, with each surplus school site individually.
“If the city adds 15,000 people here what are the recreation needs?”
The issue has been growing for years, and touches nearly every neighbourhood.
Out of 500 school sites in Edmonton, only 284 have operating school buildings. Most of the rest are empty fields, either being used for sports or sitting vacant and overgrown collecting garbage.
Every three years, school boards are required to assess the sites that sit empty. In Edmonton, the boards declared 20 surplus in 2006, and 20 more in 2009. The next batch could become available to city planners as early as Oct. 1.
The city has already declared it will build affordable townhouses on the first 20 sites. Eight of the next 20 are now slated for seniors housing, with no plans yet for the remaining 12.
The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues believes the city is going too fast, and needs to start making these decisions collaboratively with the each community involved, said Bev Zubot, their planning adviser.
“Do we need those parks? I think the city can make a good argument that it’s not needed, but the city needs to make that argument.
“The issue has been under the carpet for too long. There needs to be a public discussion on this,” Zubot said.
Tim McCargar, the city director overseeing the project, said there is already a process in place for communities to plan their parks. School sites shouldn’t be considered parks. They were never zoned that way.
Building on the school sites is cost-effective because much of the drainage and other services have already been built to these sites. Creating seniors homes will ensure housing options in neighbourhoods otherwise dominated by single-family homes. “This way we can create opportunities for seniors to stay in familiar places,” McCargar said. “In the next 30 years, the numbers of seniors we have is going to go up 266 per cent. We’re going to have more seniors than children soon.”
Blue Quill has one site now slated for seniors housing, and two sites on the list for townhouses under the First Place Program.
Further to the west, The Ridge Community League is worried about Henderson and Haddow parks, especially Haddow, which has three empty school sites, two of which are scheduled for townhouses in 2014/15.
The three neighbourhoods in the league have no schools or community hall, so Haddow Park is their only gathering place, said David Faber, president of the league. It’s where they hold BBQs, their fireworks festival Dec. 31, and other celebrations.
They aren’t against development but they want to be part of the plan, he said. They are planning to walk Sept. 8 from one park to the other to rally residents. Then they are hiring their own facilitators to get community input and form their own grassroots plan.
“What are the alternatives? Could we create a small commercial place?” said Faber, suggesting a daycare, a coffee shop, a K-2 school, or perhaps new housing on a different part of the park.
The community already raised money for a new hockey rink. Perhaps the townhouse complex could share change rooms if they were designed together, he said. But right now, one group of city staff will only talk about the school footprints, and the parks staff will only talk about the park space, even through sports fields currently cover both.
“Don’t be afraid of this conversation,” Faber tells city staff. “What if we set and example of how we could do this?”
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