Compromise may not be enough to save plan for new school

Sudbury Catholic District School Board has revised its proposal to build a New Sudbury school in parklands behind St. Charles College, but those changes may not be enough to get the plan approved.

The school board changed the design of the new school to preserve more of the area, known as Grassy Hill Park, by rerouting a proposed busing lane. The proposed new school would be located next to St. Charles College on the Falconbridge Highway and would replace three existing schools.

Instead of exiting onto Courtland Avenue, which not only takes it through the park area, but into a residential area, the lane now would exit onto the Falconbridge Highway. That would preserve more of the park area, which the board hopes would ease both concerns over the loss of the park, and over increased traffic in the area, especially on Hawthorne Drive.

School board staff declined a request for comment before the planning committee meeting June 25, when the revised proposal will be discussed. city staff is recommending rejection of the plan, based on a 2010 bylaw that gives the public more of a voice when park areas are being sold or rezoned.

The new rules “allows for community groups and property owners the opportunity to provide input on a proposed disposition of city-owned parkland,” a staff report on the proposal reads. Comments from the public and residents who live in the area have been overwhelmingly negative.

Further, the area is zoned as parkland, and is the only park in that part of the city. As a result, staff recommends rejecting the school board’s proposal and that “Grassy Hill Park be retained in its entirety.”

The report does acknowledge there is more support for the revised plan, but it is far from universal.

“The city's Real Estate Department has received calls and emails since the latest public meeting,” the report reads. “Area residents have expressed both support and opposition to the revised land. Some residents indicated that they support the latest proposal but had objected to the original land exchange.”

Residents came out in force at two public meetings on the original plan, vehemently opposing the idea of losing their park area to the new school. And dozens of residents have filed letters with the city’s planning depart outlining their objections.

“This property was given to the city by the Auger family in 1959 to be used as a park,” writes Hawthorne Drive resident Cecile Desormeaux. “There is enough land in Sudbury to build that school without taking our parkland.”

“I have cleared brushes in that area and planted many evergreens,” writes Marie St. Denis. “Birds love that area, and even rabbits come hopping along … people walk their dogs continuously in that area. It would be disastrous” to lose the park," she continues.

Other letter writers questioned the wisdom of building an elementary school so close to Solid Gold, a strip club next to St. Charles. The planning committee meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. June 25.

Posted by Arron Pickard