A site for a new school on the north end of Okotoks is one step closer to being developed.
MD of Foothills council approved a request from the Town of Okotoks and Wedderburn family to rezone 40-acres near 32 St. and 338 Ave. from agricultural to service district use on Feb. 24.
The Town is in the process of purchasing the property from the Wedderburns to create an educational and recreational campus, which is slated to house a future K-9 school for the Foothills School Division.
The school has been approved by the Province and the division plans to open its doors in September 2018.
Initially, the Foothills School Division proposed building a new high school next to the Crescent Point Regional Field House, near Aldersyde. The plan also included converting the Foothills Composite High School to a K-9 school in the future. The Town opposed the move and announced its purchase of the Wedderburn land directly west of Holy Trinity Academy in August.
With the MD’s approval to rezone the land as a service district, the Town can continue its purchase agreement with the Wedderburn family and begin to finalize plans to service and develop the land.
“We’re still very early in the design process,” said Okotoks planner Colin Gainer during the public hearing. “We’re not sure the exact locations of where the building sites will be.”
He said the Town has hired a consultant to undertake a biophysical impact assessment, to study the wetland area on the parcel and determine whether it should be maintained or developed.
Plans for entrance roads and building sites will be made according to the natural lay of the land, he said.
“We want to optimize the development potential of the proposed community campus site as well as the remnant parcel to make sure the agricultural use of the undeveloped lands are not compromised in any way,” said Gainer.
In the meantime, the Town plans to begin working out service agreements and determine the best way to bring water and sewer to the site, he said.
“We would certainly be entering into an agreement with the MD of Foothills in order to address the servicing configuration,” said Gainer. “We’ll look at agreements as far as cost-sharing.”
There are existing lines running services to Holy Trinity Academy and St. James Parish, he said, which could provide servicing to the new site.
MD Mayor Larry Spilak said if the lines are run from the HTA site to the new campus, the MD would like to be reimbursed for a portion of the cost it shouldered when the site was first serviced.
St. James Parish and HTA currently sit on MD land, he said, which was formerly municipal reserve land the municipality made available when Okotoks had no site to offer as a location for the high school, which opened in 2005.
“When it came time for servicing, Okotoks agreed to provide the servicing and we ran the pipelines,” said Spilak. “We paid for all the infrastructure to get services to the school, so our hope is, should they use that infrastructure to service the new school we would be reimbursed for a portion of that investment.”
However, Spilak said during the hearing, he applauds the Town of Okotoks for its purchase of the land and making a site available for the school.
“You saw a void, you saw a need, and you stepped up to the plate and you can send the message back to your mayor and your council that we certainly respect what they’re doing in buying this land and creating a place for education,” he said. “It’s a good move.”
