Despite a minor setback, Bradford isn’t giving up on plans for a new high school in town.
Based on a report from chief administrative officer Geoff McKnight, council endorsed a revised request for a ministerial zoning order (MZO) during its March 18 regular meeting. That’s on behalf of two land owners — GB (Bradford) Inc. and CLE 72330 Ltd. — who are each willing to donate about four hectares to create an 8.1-hectare high-school campus across two neighbouring properties at 2901 Line 6 and 2944 Line 5, which total about 81 hectares.
“We desperately need a second public high school and we needed it yesterday,” Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott said.
That was echoed by Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine, who said the only reason council was even considering the developers’ proposal to transform the property into a residential subdivision was because it included lands for the school.
Council is still expected to retain oversight of that residential development, though.
“We’re not just doing a blanket approval,” Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano said.
Council originally endorsed a previous version of the request during their Oct. 15 meeting, but since then the provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing advised that the included holding provisions — which restrict development until certain conditions are met — can’t be included in an MZO.
Those were intended to be part of a two-step process where the lands would be added to the town’s settlement boundary and rezoned from agricultural to a mix of institutional and residential with exceptions (R1-1), to allow a range of low-, medium- and high-density housing, neighbourhood commercial, parks, recreation and other institutional uses.
The first step would permit the construction of the school as well as the road and servicing for the school.
The second step would require the developers to follow the town’s application process for building a subdivision including the typical studies, reports, reviews, site plans and public consultation.
To accomplish the same result while still complying with the requirements of the MZO, staff recommend using restrictive covenants — private agreements enforceable through the judicial system — in place of the holding provisions.
The agreement will be registered on title and bind any subsequent owners to the same requirements, according to the report.
Mayor James Leduc said he was “shocked” and “quite confused” when the ministry declined the MZO as the new request is essentially “the same thing” under a different process.
While he’s supportive of bringing another high school to town, Ward 3 Coun. Ben Verkaik thought it would be better located near Line 6 with more dense and commercial developments nearby to encourage students to walk to school, rather than placing the school in the middle of the residential area.
In response, Leduc explained the town fought for that, but the property owners weren’t interested.
On the bright side, Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper noted the town’s traffic mitigation strategy will help ensure streets in the new neighbourhood are designed to address traffic issues from the start.
While the two properties could have been rezoned and added to the settlement area through the town’s ongoing growth management plan, the MZO would essentially bypass that process.
An MZO can be issued by the minister to override local planning and consultation requirements as a way to expedite rezoning an area of land and prevent the ability to appeal the rezoning. Municipal support is not required for the minister to issue an MZO, but it can be influential.
Once the necessary zoning is in place, the next step to make the high school a reality is convincing the provincial Ministry of Education to approve the required funding.