Remove the ‘big honking sign’ at new Greensville school, blinded residents say

Greensville residents are decrying the new digital sign and security lighting at the under-construction school in the community as light pollution - and demanding its removal.

Shannon Kyles, a Harvest Road resident, said the lighting and signage at the new school is far in excess of what is needed in a country school."

When you drive by it, you might as well be in downtown Mississauga," she said. The people in Greensville moved here because they don't want to live in Mississauga.

Why does the school board have the right to inflict that on us? It doesn't go with the vibe of the neighbourhood at all."

Kyles added the excess lighting will kill birds, insects and mammals in the area and the school is on a bird migration path that will be disturbed by the lighting.

In response to the concerns, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board Ward 13 trustee Paul Tut said the board has decided to turn the sign off until the school opens to students in January.

Once the school opens to students, Tut said the board will turn off the sign from 7 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., and reduce the intensity of the sign's lighting during the day.

We're hoping that once the school opens ... we're going to be reducing the intensity of the actual lighting - it's going to be reduced down to 75 per cent," he said. And it will be turned off at 7 p.m., once the school opens, so that will alleviate that late-night light up that was occurring in the community and we hope that will make people happy."

However, he said the lighting remaining at the site is the contractor's security lighting and as a result, the board has little control over it.

Tut said the board has conveyed the community concerns with lighting to the contractor, but he said for safety and security reasons the lights have to be there during construction.

He said once the school is open, while there may be some evening lighting, it won't be like what the community has seen recently.

There might be some security lighting that goes around the school, but I don't think anyone is really going to notice that," he said.

However, Kyles said the board's moves don't go far enough and has started a petition demanding the immediate and complete removal of the digital sign and the reduction of lighting on the school property back to the level it was before the new school was built."

In the petition, Kyles argues the digital sign and lighting are in no way keeping with the character of the area." In addition, the petition said residents find the lighting and digital sign intrusive and unwelcome" and that the lighting is an extravagant and unnecessary waste of taxpayers money" which could be spent on teachers and teachers' aids.

Instead, the petitioners suggest a small sign could replace the digital one and the lighting could be turned off except when there is an event in the school.

Why do we need that big honking sign?" Kyles said. Get rid of the sign - turn all the lights in the property off at 7 p.m.

We don't need a landing pad; it's not an airport."

As of press time the petition had garnered more than 35 signatures.

However, HWDSB spokesperson Shawn McKillop said in an email the digital sign is a vital piece to supporting parent communication."

The sign is governed by our visual identity policy, which defines what the signage looks like," he continued. This has been included in the design of the school and supported through our facilities management team."

McKillop added construction at school is slated to be complete in time to open to students on Jan. 4, 2021.