FERGUS – While some councillors feel giving up Strathallan Park for a Catholic high school would be a welcome addition to the township, others are concerned developing the property might remove essential green space from the rest of the community.
Presented during a council meeting Monday evening, managing director of community services Pat Newson said the township will require additional school spaces for "students of all ages" as it grows and declaring Strathallan Park a surplus property will ultimately strengthen the board's application to the Ministry of Education to expand St. Joseph Catholic School into a high school.
Council did approve declaring the park a surplus property at the meeting, but it's only the first step in the process and the land sale is conditional on the approval of the Ministry of Education.
"I'm super happy about this," said Coun. Lisa MacDonald, during the meeting. "(Parents) are very happy that a Catholic school will be coming and...I think it will be full of students."
However, Coun. Bronwynne Wilton said some residents neighbouring the park are concerned about the loss of permanently accessible green space, not to mention increased traffic to the area.
According to the report, the town will continue to operate and maintain the park before any development and part of the agreement will ensure the majority of the green space will be accessible outside of school hours.
"I understand some of the argument is that there will still be green space but only accessible after school hours or on weekends and that's quite different for stay-at-home parents, seniors, etc." said Wilton. "I just want to be cognizant of those residents and make sure we make up for that loss of green space as much as we can in the future as this proceeds."
Clarifying the proposal still needs to go through the development process, Mayor Shawn Watters said there will be opportunities to share these concerns further down the line but he feels declaring the land as surplus is an important first step to introducing necessary infrastructure to Fergus.
"We obviously don't want any issues as it relates to children traversing through those areas and I think a proper site plan for this area will look at all those issues," said Watters. "I like the fact that there will still be green space and there will still be an opportunity for people to access, though at different times... it's not like that space will go out (of commission) completely."
Currently, students attending the Wellington Catholic District Board High School are bussed outside the community as there is no Catholic high school in Centre Wellington or Wellington County.
The board is also looking to expand the elementary school which is over capacity.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
