NEWS FILE PHOTO Ecole les Cypres, located at the corner of First Avenue and Ninth St. on the Southeast Hill, could either be repurposed or closed and sold once a new francophone school is built int he community of Saamis Heights.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
The city says if the French School location on the Southeast Hill was determined to be an ideal location for the “community hub” that would include a food bank, there would not be any rezoning required.
Erin Onoferychuk, superintendent of planning, implementation, says the current site for Ecole les Cypres on First Avenue SE is zoned Community Services under Section 10.2 Land Use Bylaw.
The purpose of a community services is: “To provide for the development of social, non-profit, educational, governmental, religious and other public and private institutional services, as well as limited infill residential uses,” said Onoferychuk.
The permitted uses in the community services district include: artist studios, business and professional offices, clubs, community centres, cultural facilities, daycare facilities, education institutions, government services, health care facilities or offices, places of worship, and recreation facilities.
Onoferychuk says the listed use that accommodates the existing school would be “Government Services,” which means a development where the main use is to provide municipal, provincial or federal government services and includes a government office, postal service outlet, social service centre, elementary school, junior high school, or high school.
“A use such as a food bank would most closely fall under the ‘Government Services’ definition as a ‘social service centre’,” said Onoferychuk. “A ‘community hub’ would seem to fall under the ‘Government Services’ definition as well, since it appears the concept involves educating persons in areas including the growing, cooking, and preparation of food, and could be described as a ‘social service centre.’ It would seem this use could be accommodated on this site with the existing … Community Services zoning district.”
