Pan Am precinct

[SteelTown]

Site of the new lower city school, with adjacent field and nearby parking.


New north-end school will go on King George/Parkview land

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilt...land-1.2129750

It’s not a large enough site to include a parking lot, but public school board trustees have voted to put a new north high school on the current site of King George and Parkview schools.

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board will build a new 1,250-student, three-storey school on the 3.67-acre land. Its parking lot, suitable for 165 vehicles, will be 200 metres down the road at Scott Park.

Trustees voted at a standing committee meeting Monday night. The decision will be ratified by the board on Oct. 28.

It will still be a tight fit – the King George/Parkview land is only large enough for the school and a soccer field that will double as a practice football field. Full football games will be 3.8 kilometres away at Sir Winston Churchill.

But chair Tim Simmons said this option is looking out for students.

“This doesn’t get what everyone wants, but it’s good for kids,” said Simmons, who represents the area.

It means the board will expropriate the land that formerly housed Scott Park high school. The price of that is still undetermined. It also means that the Scott Park building will be demolished at accost of $4 million.

“That community has long wanted to see (the building) come down,” Simmons said.

The King George/Parkview land leaves enough room for a future theatre or portables, director John Malloy said.

There could be a wrinkle in the plan. The city is currently doing a heritage assessment of the King George building to determine its heritage value and whether to designate it a heritage property, which would make it more difficult to demolish.

In this process, the city will determine which heritage attributes of King George that the board needs to maintain, said Daniel Del Bianco, the board’s senior facilities manager.

The assessment should be finished in two to three weeks, Del Bianco said.

The new school will replace Sir John A. Macdonald, Delta and Parkview schools, which will close by 2016. Students at Parkview, a school for students with special needs, will have the option to attend Mountain, which serves a similar population, until Mountain closes in 2017.

The new school will cost $31.8 million. The Ministry of Education has provided funding.

This is a plan B for the board. Initially, it approached the city asking to partner on a recreation centre and high school complex. The city declined.

[Frankenrogers]

Why can't they use the new Ivor Wynne as their football field? When I went to Scott Park in the early 90s that is what we did. We even played touch football and soccer over there for gym class.

This whole thing is ridiculous.

[Frankenrogers]

How much more expensive is it to put parking underground? Seems a shame to put more surface parking there.

[flar]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

^ Nope, they voted last night for demolishing Scott Park for a parking lot instead of a high school.

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/41...-school-board/

The parking is still for a new high school, is it not? Same difference.

In fact, this is even more absurd. This will be the most expensive parking lot ever built, considering the school board has to buy back this land at a price probably at least double what they sold it for just a few years ago.

Not to mention a parking lot on this section of King is a disgrace from an urban standpoint.



Step back even further and we have to wonder why they need to build another school in the first place when they are closing three perfectly good schools. Detla is just a few blocks away.

[SteelTown]

Originally Posted by flar

The parking is still for a new high school, is it not? Same difference.

Originally they were going to build a high school on Scott Park land but now instead it's a parking lot.

From an urban standpoint it would've been far better to have a high school replace Scott Park than a parking lot that will sit empty most of the time of the year.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Originally they were going to build a high school on Scott Park land but now instead it's a parking lot.

From an urban standpoint it would've been far better to have a high school replace Scott Park than a parking lot that will sit empty most of the time of the year.

I think what Flar meant was that the school board intends to use the Scott Park property as well as the King George/Parkview properties to build a new high school and provide parking, and however the land is allotted doesn't really affect the overall outcome. In one case, Scott Park site would be a school and King George/Parkview would be parking, in the other case King George/Parkview would be the school and Scott Park will be a parking lot. Six of one, half-dozen of the other. Either scenario sees all three buildings are being demolished.

It would probably make more sense to put the parking by the high school and develop the old Scott Park site for playing fields, as it will tie in nicely with the site of the new rec centre. Unless the school board is playing tit for tat for the City's choice to go it alone on the rec center - but surely the trustees aren't intending to be petty or anything

Relocating the board to the mountain was a board decision that caused some people to raise their eyebrows, but this is indeed gives cause to firmly palm-plant one's forehead. If there was ever any doubt over the ineptitude of the board, this decision should remove all traces of that doubt. HWDSB is run by complete idiots.

[Jon Dalton]

Part of the blame lies with the City for upholding their parking bylaw. 3 spaces per classroom? That might make sense for new schools on the mountain where land is plentiful and transit sparse, but in the middle of the city? How many staff per classroom are there in a high school? I'd bet about 1.5 including administrative staff and maintenance. Who are the extra parking spaces for? And should the taxpayer cover teachers' and school staff's parking in the first place?

[ScreamingViking]

The Scott Park-ing Lot

And isn't the city planning to put a soccer field where the baseball diamonds are now? Why have another one just a short block away?

The city and the board really need to get coordinated on this. They don't have to partner up on the costs, but develop an overall plan for the two properties that maximizes uses.

[SteelTown]

The stadium has I believe 200 or so parking spots along Beechwood Ave. So why can't staff/students use that parking lot?

Just total stupidity.

[SteelTown]

Gawd you can even see freaking stadium parking spots directly across from the proposed High School

[coalminecanary]

can we forcibly evict these nitwits and change the locks?

[Jon Dalton]

Is the stadium ever going to be used when school is in session? As far as I know all football games are on weekends.

[SteelTown]

Motion passes. School will go on King George/Parkview site. Parking lot on expropriated Scott Park. It's done.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilt...hool-1.2254990

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Motion passes. School will go on King George/Parkview site. Parking lot on expropriated Scott Park. It's done.

What an innovative solution.

Wait until the city starts formulating its plan for the pool and seniors centre, which will also require their own parking. I bet there will be more talk about how that block should be arranged.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

Is the stadium ever going to be used when school is in session? As far as I know all football games are on weekends.

Practices. Though I doubt they'll use more than about 100 of the 180 stadium spaces (coaches, players, support staff, media)

There may also be community uses during the day, but I'd think the bulk of demand will be evening/weekend as well.

[SteelTown]

The school board will have to face two major hurdles, zoning change for a parking lot (which takes forever and a lot of money) and heritage destination for King George.

[CaptainKirk]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

The school board will have to face two major hurdles, zoning change for a parking lot (which takes forever and a lot of money) and heritage destination for King George.

If only public disapproval were a major hurdle...

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

What an innovative solution.

Wait until the city starts formulating its plan for the pool and seniors centre, which will also require their own parking. I bet there will be more talk about how that block should be arranged.

It's kind of sad to see the inevitable slow, quiet crawl towards demolishing Jimmy Thompson pool as part of the Pan Am district's redevelopment. This is truly a gem of an art deco recreational building whose architectural significance is vastly underrated. It would seem almost ironic should the legacy of the Pan Am Games be the catalyst for its destruction. This is, after all, the last surviving legacy structure from the 1928 British Empire Games. I would much rather see it incorporated into the Pan Am District's overall plan rather than have it become a victim of the wrecking ball. There is a disturbing silence in response to questions about its future.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Very little of what's happening at the moment makes much sense. What the Board, the City, the Province et al are doing is akin to a Three Stooges routine. At this point I just want it to be over.

[SteelTown]

The ideal situation would be demolishing Scott Park for a new rec centre with a senior centre that's attached to Jimmy Thompson pool, which gets completed restored and renovated.

Let the new high school staff and students use the stadium parking lots.