Some Erin Ridge residents are disappointed with the results of a review of the city’s school site allocation process.
An update to the city’s school site allocation agreement, which included a report on the process review that was done, was scheduled to be presented to council at Tuesday night’s meeting.
The agreement governs the process through which a committee decides where to put new schools in St. Albert.
The review was undertaken after controversy in 2013 over the chosen location of a francophone high school. In 2013 the province announced a new francophone high school and a new public elementary school for St. Albert.
The elementary school was picked to go into Erin Ridge North without much comment, but the decision to put the high school into Eldorado Park in Erin Ridge resulted in pushback from the area’s residents, who argued the site was too small and that the impact to traffic would just add problems to an already busy area.
Erin Ridge residents Kathy Van Hoof and Kristin Toms both told the Gazette they were disappointed the process review came back with a recommendation that keeps the final authority for deciding what sites are used for which schools with the school site allocation committee and not council.
The school site allocation committee consists of the three school boards’ superintendents and the city’s chief administrative officer.
“I think (council) should have a final say … or at least have a representative at the committee,” said Van Hoof.
Currently council’s input occurs at a stage when the plan for the neighbourhood, called the area structure plan, is being considered.
Toms suggested that there should be a process for reviewing and updating those plans to keep them current.
She takes issue with unelected officials making decisions about large infrastructure.
“It was sort of an epic fail,” she said after reviewing the report that was to be presented to council.
The process review came to council last year before being sent on to the school boards for their input.
The result that was on council’s agenda was similar to what was presented in 2014, just with a few language tweaks.
The process review suggests sharing an annual inventory of potential school sites publicly, something Adryan Slaght, the city’s planning branch manager, said could be out sometime this spring.
Slaght said their review, which included reaching out to 18 other communities awarded schools in 2013, found the current agreement is a good example of a working allocation agreement.
The report notes most of the communities contacted didn’t have a formal site allocation agreement in place.
Slaght said the proposed update to the agreement clarifies roles and the land transfer process.
