City Hall (some snow)

It used to be known as as a school and if city council gives the green light the old Marshall Park Public School will be an apartment building.

Last night (Monday), city council heard details of the rezoning proposal which would turn the old school into a 40 unit building.

Staff explained that the building would be renovated from its current school look, but other than that there would be no other changes.

Chair of Community Services Mark King says it’s a win-win as the city will benefit financially through this proposal, through building permit fees and taxes from the apartment building.

There was some concern about traffic volumes in the staff report, but there were no presentations from the public last night.

King says traffic might even be less of a concern, because there won’t be a congregation of vehicles around 8:30 am and 3:30 pm when people would have entered or left the school parking lot.

Councillor Derek Shogren was supportive as well, saying schools are consolidating leaving empty buildings and it’s important council tries to do something about it by encouraging development in these former school structures.

He says there are three other empty schools, even after this rezoning proposal moves forward.

Shogren says the city could even looking at purchasing vacant school buildings at the right price.

The rezoning request was approved at the committee level and now goes to full council.