While construction on the joint-use school on South Hill is nowhere close to starting, one city councillor is concerned about how much land the municipality is selling for the project.
During an in-camera — behind closed doors — executive committee meeting on Jan. 30, council approved a recommendation to direct city administration to sell phases 5 and 6 of the Westheath property to Prairie South School Division and Holy Trinity Catholic School Division for $2,541,848.
Both school divisions would be allowed to market and lead the development of these 34 acres (13.6 hectares) at $15,000 per acre, while they would be responsible for the development levies and all costs associated with the existing concept plan.
Coun. Crystal Froese asked that that recommendation be voted on again during council’s Feb. 10 regular meeting.
“Our citizens need to understand how we landed on this decision and the circumstances around it. We had been in the process of developing this part of our city and now we are moving forward with allowing the school board to act as a realtor or broker to actually sell this whole property at $2.5 million,” she said.
Most residents on South Hill are in favour of the new school since one is vitally needed, Froese continued. She was also wholeheartedly in agreement and understood why amalgamating several public and Catholic schools into one was necessary. However, she didn’t understand why council would sell 34 acres to the school divisions when the new school would likely require only 10 acres.
Froese added that during the recent Municipalities of Saskatchewan convention, she spoke with councillors and mayors who had dealt with the construction of joint-use schools in their communities. They told her they had never had to approve a similar agreement for the location of the school.
One thing council needs to understand is it must respect the decisions of other elected bodies, such as the provincial and federal governments, said Coun. Brian Swanson, who is also a trustee with the Prairie South school board. With this issue, the school divisions chose the site for the new school in a new subdivision that Moose Jaw has not yet developed, nor was the municipality about to develop it. They did this without consulting with the municipality.
Swanson supported not developing the Westheath area since he didn’t want to see council sink millions of dollars into installing underground infrastructure and roads when the community is not ready for that area yet. He pointed to how few housing starts there have been in Moose Jaw to support his position.
“I recused myself from site selection decisions at the school board. I do not want to see the property taxpayers of Moose Jaw upfronting a whole bunch of money for a subdivision development that we really don’t need at this time,” he added. “If the school divisions want to pursue that site, the costs associated with doing so should be borne by the school divisions.”
Council then voted 6-1 to approve the motion to sell the property to the school divisions for $2.5 million. Froese was opposed.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Feb. 24.
