City council wants the Saskatchewan Appeals Board to overturn a decision that the community Development Appeals Board made that allowed Holy Trinity Catholic School Division to proceed with a project.
During its Oct. 28 regular meeting, council voted 6-1 in favour of having city administration submit an application to the provincial appeals board to overturn a decision made at the local level.
Coun. Chris Warren was opposed.
The Development Appeals Board had given approval to the school division for it to add a relocatable (portable) classroom to St. Agnes School at 330 Oxford Street West even though the project contravened the municipal zoning bylaw.
Background
The board heard the organization’s application during a meeting on Oct. 15, where Holy Trinity asked for relaxation of the zoning bylaw since there would not be any additional on-site parking spaces added since 21 stalls already exist, a report to city council explained. This is contrary to the bylaw, which would have required two barrier-free parking stalls and one loading zone to be added.
The school division applied for a building permit last June to add the portable classroom. City hall determined that to meet the requirements of the zoning bylaw, two existing parking stalls had to be enlarged to meet barrier-free requirements and one on-site loading had to be provided.
The building permit was issued on the condition that the division re-submit plans to meet on-site parking requirements. The division chose to appeal this condition.
The municipality advised the division that city hall had no issues with the loading zone issue, but a human rights complaint could be lodged over the barrier-free parking exemption.
During the meeting, a representative for Holy Trinity spoke about the project, the report continued. He explained the school is 100-per-cent overcapacity so a portable classroom would manage the class sizes within the building. There is also nothing inside the school that is barrier-free, while all loading is done on Oxford Street.
After reviewing the material, the appeals board decided the requested relaxation of the bylaw would not be a special privilege since the board would grant a variance to other school divisions or businesses in similar circumstances. Furthermore, the request would not be contrary to the purpose and intent of the bylaw since there would not be any additional staff added once the portable was installed, nor does the school require a loading area since it rarely receives large deliveries.
Lastly, the request would not injuriously affect neighbouring properties since no extra parking would be required, while no letters of concern were received from adjacent property owners.
Council discussion
The idea that the school does not have to offer barrier-free parking since the building is not free of barriers is troubling, said Coun. Brian Swanson, a former teacher and current public school trustee, during the Oct. 28 meeting. If council accepted that logic, then other organizations or businesses could put forward the same argument and that could have future ramifications.
“To allow a development to bypass the requirement for barrier-free parking because the building is not barrier-free, to me is just unacceptable in this day and age,” he added.
The next regular council meeting is Tuesday, Nov. 12.
