The city of Coquitlam is sending the local board of education back to school to face complaints about its plans to sell surplus land at an elementary school.
On Monday, city council deferred a bid by School District 43, which wants to change the city's official community plan (OCP) and rezone 1.26 acres at Parkland elementary. The cash-strapped school district plans to dispose of part of the site - at the corner of Como Lake Avenue and Poirier Street - to help pay for capital costs for new schools.
It is estimated the land sale would bring in up to $5 million for School District 43 plus generate development cost charges (DCCs) and 5% parkland funds for the city.
According to the plans, SD43 intends to subdivide the site into eight single-family lots with a rear lane - an application that is deemed "technically feasible" by city planners.
But during an early public consultation in April (held prior to first reading), city staff said there were a number of outstanding concerns that SD43 needed to address. As a result, city council ordered SD43 to host an open house to gain more feedback.
At issue is a 1,444-signature petition, presented to city council in March from Coquitlam parent Volodymyr Orlenko that calls for a stop to any school district lands being sold.
As well, the city received 15 individual responses - most in opposition to school land disposition, extra traffic volume and construction impacts on the neighbourhood.
"It's the proponent's challenge to get people on side. We need them to get better information out to people," Coun. Neal Nicholson said at Monday's city council meeting.
Still, in a letter to the city, board chair Melissa Hyndes said the school district went through a "thorough consultation" about Parkland.
Besides meeting with school staff and the PAC, letters were sent home to students' parents and were hand-delivered to neighbours. As well, advertisements were placed, including a large sign on the school property to be sold (it makes up 13.3% of the Parkland grounds).
Hyndes said trustees listened to the public and, last November, voted down an option to sell land at Porter Street elementary.
"The fact that the board recommended moving forward with the Parkland property and not the Porter Street property indicates that the board thoroughly considered the feedback from both consultations," she wrote in her letter, dated April 23.
As for the petition, 13% of the names were from residents in the school vicinity while 38% of the signatures were from people living outside of Coquitlam, Hyndes noted.
