St. Albert’s Catholic and public school boards aren’t willing to part with a school site in Oakmont, even though the city is looking at using that piece of land for something else.
During the June 17 city council meeting, chief administrative officer Kevin Scoble asked to look for other uses for the 16-acre parcel. The city has been asking the local school boards for years if they would be willing to part with the land.
The piece of land is the only available serviced and city-owned school site in the city’s inventory.
St. Albert Public Schools chair Glenys Edwards called the city’s actions premature.
“We think the city needs to (make) that a priority as a school site until such time that there are enough school sites for the need,” she said. “Our school population is growing. We have opened two new schools in the last three years, and in our capital plan going forward we have a request for more new schools.”
Municipalities are entitled to 10 per cent of land whenever a developer moves forward on a project. This is what happened in November 1997 when the Oakmont site became municipal reserve after a subdivision development moved forward.
Reserve land can be used for any municipal purpose, but Edwards pointed out the city has a responsibility to provide school sites.
“We are concerned that the growth of St. Albert is a bit unknown at this point and should St. Albert ever grow out east, there would definitely be a need for a school in the Oakmont and farther east area,” she said.
“Our board does not want the city to change Oakmont from a school site to something else. We feel there is a need for a school site.”
Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools board chair Joe Becigneul agreed with his public counterpart that the school site should stay how it is. He said the city has a shortage of school sites.
“As we expand these areas, we need to see the other school sites before we would relinquish the one,” he said. “We’ve expressed our interest so I don’t know what the city’s intentions are at this point. It looks like they’re just weighing their options. We did make it clear to them that we were still interested in maintaining it as a school site pending future growth for the city.”
Coun. Jacquie Hansen, a former school board trustee, said she saw both sides of the argument but supported the city looking at using the Oakmont site for something else. She said it made sense to keep the school site when Oakmont was a newer neighbourhood but that changed as the years rolled by.
“That site is going to sit empty and it could be repurposed for something that we need and as you know, land is not easily gotten in St. Albert,” she said. “We are looking at repurposing (the land) and it could be used for affordable housing. There are things we know we could use it for. I wish the school boards would consider more thoughtfully (about) giving it up.”
According to the city’s latest census, 3,496 residents live in Oakmont, which grew by 4.5 per cent from 2016 to 2018. The average age in Oakmont is 41.7 years old. The neighbourhood also has approximately 178 elementary students, 242 junior high students, 188 high school students and 20 part-time post-secondary students.
