A Queen’s Park independent school’s bid to expand its footprint by tearing down and building over an adjacent apartment site is stirring up controversy before it has even gone to a public hearing.
Recently elected Mayor Jonathan Cote told The Record he has already heard from concerned residents, who are either for or against the Urban Academy expansion project. He has received emails from eager parents who want the school built and those who fear an expansion will mean more traffic. Opponents also say the new building won’t fit in with the existing neighbourhood and will diminish rental stock.
“I think this will probably be the first controversial public hearing that this council will face,” Cote said.
(228 Manitoba St.)
Betina Ali has lived in the apartment building at 228 Manitoba St. for 16 years and raised her two daughters (15 and 20) in the building as a single mom. Ali belongs to the Queen’s Park Neighbours, a group of approximately 40 residents who oppose the project.
“It is a safe, central neighbourhood that is accessible to transit and allows me to walk to work, and my girls to school (and prior to that for me to bring them to daycare). The area has very little affordable housing and not only will this project take away one of six two- or three-storey walk-ups in the neighbourhood, I also feel very strongly that it will destroy the livability of the neighbourhood because of the increase in traffic, lack of parking and the size of the proposed new building,” she wrote in an email to The Record.
Urban Academy, a non-profit school overseen by a board, owns the two-storey, eight-unit apartment located behind Robson Manor.
The board applied to the City of New Westminster for a heritage revitalization agreement and an official community plan amendment to move forward with the project, which would enable the school to restore Robson Manor and add a new, contemporary facility for up to 450 students in junior kindergarten to Grade 12.
(An artist's rendering of the design plans for the new school)
Urban Academy, founded by local parents in 2001, currently has 157 students at Robson Manor and at an off-site senior campus. Urban Academy head Cheryle Beaumont said the school is growing to the point where its board needs to make a decision about new facilities to accommodate all of its students on a single site.
“We are simply asking to expand and redevelop on this site,” Beaumont said.
About 44 per cent of the families are from New West. Students also come from Surrey, Burnaby, Vancouver and the Tri-Cities.
As for traffic concerns, Beaumont said the school encourages parents to stop in a public parking area at Tipperary Park and then walk along a path to the school.
They have also asked parents not to park near the school on Third Street.
The school hopes the city will build a crosswalk from the park to the school as well as on Queens Avenue and Third Street.
“To be honest, it (traffic) is usually a problem around (every) school – 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at night,” said Beaumont, who recently retired as superintendent in the Langley school district and prior to that worked as the principal of New Westminster Secondary School from 2000 to 2004.
If the project is approved, the school’s board will work with tenants of the Manitoba Street apartment to find new homes, Beaumont said.
“We will be providing a tenant relocation plan to the city, but certainly we want to be generous around helping them find alternative accommodations when the time comes, making sure we take care of some of their expenses on their moving,” she said.
If the school’s expansion plans do come up for a public hearing, it would likely be held in early spring, Cote said.
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