School reserves to be turned into housing (1:05 p.m.)
Some land has been sitting vacant for 30 to 50 years
Sarah O’Donnell, edmontonjournal.com
Published: Thursday, November 23, 2006
Twenty pieces of land around Edmonton previously reserved for schools will be partially transformed into housing for first-time homebuyers under a deal reached by the city, the two school districts and the province.
“This is a program we want to make it clear is about first-time homebuyer housing,” Mayor Stephen Mandel said this morning at a news conference at City Hall. “This is not about social housing, subsidized housing or short-term rental housing or someone trying to get on their feet.”
The deal breaks a long-standing impasse between the city and the school boards about what to do with the land, which developers were required to set aside as they first built neighbourhoods such as Blue Quill, Tawa and Dunluce.
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Font: ****Some of the land has been sitting vacant for 30 to 50 years, although it is enjoyed by communities as green space. The school officials say it is now clear schools will never be built on those sites.
Under the plan, which had to be approved by the provincial government, the city will sell land from each site to a private developer that is equivalent to the amount of space a school would have occupied.
That will typically amount to about seven per cent of each site, Mandel said. The rest will be remain green space.
The portion to be developed will be rezoned to allow medium-density, multiple-family housing, with an estimated 25 to 50 units going on each site. That means the program could result in up to 1,000 new condos or townhouses for first-time homebuyers.
The city and school districts will share the profits from that sale. Edmonton Public had dibs on 12 of the sites. The remaining eight were dedicated to Edmonton Catholic.
“The group we’re going after is the group young families or couples who are in the income of 60-80,000 right now who have been frozen out of our housing market in the city of Edmonton,” Mandel said. “We’re talking about first time home-buyers, Edmontonians with good jobs and decent incomes who are being held back because of the surge in housing prices.”
Alberta Education Minister Gene Zwozdesky, Public School district chairwoman Bev Esslinger and Catholic School district chairwoman Debbie Engel called the proposal a “win” for everyone.
A map of the 20 surplus schools sites to be developed is available on the city's website.
Staff writer Sarah O-Donnell will have more on the agreement and reaction to it in Friday’s Journal.
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