Chestermere City Council is continuing work to build school sites in developing areas.
Shamin Vicenco of development and special projects explained there are three main stakeholders, the municipality, school boards, and the provincial government involved in the process to build new schools during the March 28 council meeting.
“It’s not just in the hands of one stakeholder, it’s definitely a collaborative effort from pre-planning to the opening of schools,” Vicenco said.
The general locations for school sites are first specified by school boards and under the city’s area structure plan (ASP).
“It’s very important to identify the location at this stage, because the school boards identify the need for schools within developments,” Vicenco said.
When the ASP is approved, an outline plan highlighting the school design, road network, access to the school, playfield, and amenities surrounding the school is developed.
After the ASP and outline plan are approved by city council, a subdivision application is submitted.
“This is a very critical stage that we would have to cross so it’s included in the three-year capital budget and funding,” Vicenco said. “The municipality plays a critical role in advancing through the next steps with capital plan requests construction from the provincial government.”
If the project is approved, the school board, Alberta Education and Alberta Infrastructure work together to ensure the facility meets the needs of students.
After the funding is approved, the school board will submit the design to the city for development permit approval.
“Typically, the construction of the school starts immediately when the building permit is issued,” Vicenco said.
Chestermere’s future school site locations include Bridgeport, Chelsea, Dawson’s Landing, Waterford, and Clearwater Park.
A Bridgeport Kindergarten to Grade 9 school site subdivision has been conditionally approved, however, there’s no activity on the site currently.
A Kindergarten to Grade 9 site in Dawson’s Landing and Chelsea has received design funding under the 2023 budget.
The Chelsea High School Site subdivision application has been conditionally approved.
The Dawson’s Landing Kindergarten to Grade 9 school received funding to initiate the preliminary planning design for the school site. If funding is approved, the school could be operational by 2026.
“Right now, we have the Dawson’s Landing school advancing the fastest,” Vicenco said. “Our next milestone is subdivision registration, and for the site to be serviced by the end of the summer.”
There are currently six schools operating in Chestermere, with 13 additional schools approved in the ASP and outline plan.
Four of the 13 schools are under the subdivision stage, and two have received pre-planning and design funding under the 2023/24 budget, Vicenco said.
Going forward, city administration is continuing to work with developers, bringing the school sites into early subdivisions, helping school boards with site readiness, and finding alternative funding sources in the interim.
“We wanted to show what we’re trying to do and work with the developer, we wear one hat in this formula, it’s the city, the developer, the school board, and the government,” Director of Growth and Planning Travis Fillier said.
“Sometimes the funding is the bottleneck in this whole process. Administration is trying to find alternatives to what the funding can look like, if there are ways we can fast track and shave a year off the capital plan,” he added. “Funding models, servicing the site, transferring the title, we want to get ahead of that and have it all done in phase one.”
