Four more Stoney Creek area schools go up for sale
Four more public elementary schools in lower Stoney Creek and east Hamilton are going up for sale as construction on a new Glen school and an expanded Collegiate Avenue school continues toward planned September openings.
Trustees voted unanimously on March 29 to declare Elizabeth Bagshaw, Glen Echo, Green Acres and R.L. Hyslop surplus, starting Phase 1 of their property-disposition protocol.
All four schools are in Ward 5 and scheduled to remain open until the end of June. They join five other schools recently declared surplus, including Ward 10's closed Mountain View, approved for sale in January.
The property disposition protocol gives a long list of preferred public agencies, including the city and other school boards, 90 days to express interest in buying the schools, and another 90 days to submit an acceptable offer.
The schools must be sold at fair market value and if no public agency is interested, they can be offered to private buyers.
Ward 5 Coun. Chad Collins said it's too early to say which, if any, of the four schools in his area he'd like the city to acquire, but R.L. Hyslop tops his list because there isn't much parkland in the neighbourhood.
He said depending on community consultation, he may consider acquiring one or more other sites on that list as well."
From a global perspective, it's a difficult process to deal with because school closures are in many ways kind of sucking the life out of the inner city," Collins said, noting Ward 5 has already lost Red Hill and Bishop Ryan schools to housing.
It's one of the first amenities a young family would look at when purchasing a new home. To lose something like that, it's oftentimes not just the school," he said. There's also the green space and the recreational amenities."
Ward 10 Coun. Maria Pearson said she's not interested in having the city buy Mountain View because the 299 Barton St. property backs onto an industrial area, making it unsuitable for a park.
Opened in 1949, the school's remaining students shifted to the new South Meadow school, built on the rear playing of Memorial, now closed. Most Mountain View students had already moved to the rebuilt Eastdale in January 2020.
Pearson said if Mountain View's 5.87-acre property is sold to a private buyer, the new owner could continue educational uses or seek an industrial rezoning in keeping with the area.
The city's official plan also allows school properties to be converted for low-density residential uses without a zoning amendment.
My kids both went to Mountain View," Pearson said. I could never see a use that the city would be able to put there."
The four Ward 5 schools will close as part of an accommodation plan that is building an addition at Collegiate Avenue school and a 582-student school on Glen Brae's playing field.
Glen Brae and Sir Isaac Brock are also scheduled to close once the new Glen school opens, but have yet to be declared surplus.
Trustees in December declared four Flamborough schools surplus - Beverly Central, Dr. John Seaton, Queen's Rangers and Spencer Valley - with January's opening of the new Spring Valley school in Ancaster and rebuilt Greensville school.
School board policy directs staff to host a public information on any school declared surplus within 60 days.