The community is getting its first look at the North Vancouver School District’s plans for a new school at the former Cloverley Elementary site. But area residents are raising concerns about the loss of green space, tennis courts and other amenities the neighbourhood has relied on for decades.
The province announced in June that it would fund $61 million for the new school, big enough for 585 students, including 60 kindergartners, plus space for 50 kids in before- and after-school care. The school district has agreed to put up $3 million. And the City of North Vancouver is contributing $3.5 million to include a dedicated childcare centre.
The school district is planning to use mass timber construction, rather than concrete and steel, for the project, and designers are aiming to have the building’s greenhouse gas emissions 85 per cent below that of a typical school.
Jim Mackenzie, director of facilities and capital planning, debuted a preliminary site plan and basic design schematic for the North Vancouver school board last month.
“It’s been a very long timeline on this project,” he said. “We’re getting close to the point where we’re going to get our design done, get out to tender and go to construction.”
As it looks on paper now, the new school will be built on the east side of the property, rather where the existing building is now on the west side. That, Mackenzie said, is for geotechnical safety.
“During early investigations, we did do some test digs and learned that there’s about six or seven metres of liquefiable soils on the west side the property where the existing school is. Those soils are much shallower on the east side where the park and tennis courts are,” he said. “That is where it’s most prudent to actually build, from a seismic perspective.”
That, however, will have ramifications for the rest of the property and the neighbourhood, effectively removing Cloverley Park, which the school district has leased to the city, and its amenities.
Cloverley residents push for change
A group of neighbours plan to be at the next school board meeting to deliver a message.
“The community understands there’s a need and welcomes a new elementary school. But it makes more sense to site the school on the current western location. The park and the tennis court have been part of the Cloverley community for the last 40 years. They’re really well used and well loved,” said Barry Shaw, who lives across the street.
The decision to include a one-way pick-up and drop-off driveway though the site and a parking lot, both exiting at Kennard Avenue, also makes little sense, said Alison Shaw, because the extremely steep street becomes treacherous and is frequently closed anytime it snows.
“The bottom slope of Kennard is just a no-go. We have video of cars losing control and hitting other cars on the street,” she said.
The request for proposal document that the school district issued for the design work in April includes a paragraph stating that the City of North Vancouver would prefer the school be built on the west side, which is a block closer to the growing Moodyville neighbourhood it is intended to serve, and that the city “has expressed an interest in potentially paying the premium cost differential to construct the school on the alternative/existing school location provided it is less costly than reinstating a new park on the west side of the property.”
The same RFP document specifies that “the majority of the site is at low risk of liquefaction during a seismic event,” Barry Shaw noted.
Cloverley Street resident Anthony Riglietti is greeting the preliminary design with mixed feelings.
“The school is great. We’re all stoked for it, considering it’s basically an eyesore now, but the loss of the park is major,” he said, noting there will be an open green space deficit that impacts an entire neighbourhood.
Riglietti also questions the wisdom of including a drop-off lane when the city and the school district both try to encourage walking and cycling.
“It is a bit much considering no other school has that. Is it even needed?” he said. “It’s walkable, and having that slip lane just to promote drop-off by car bothers me a little bit because that could be green space.”
Mackenzie told school board trustees said they are still doing geotechnical and transportation studies that will further inform the design, and the school district is planning to hold a community meeting for neighbours to keep them informed and answer questions in January.
“The building could move. The building could change its shape slightly. We’ll know more as that investigation comes back,” he said.
Under the school district’s timeline, the hope is to have the old school building demolished by April with construction contracts being issued by June and work on the new school starting in the fall of 2024. The target is to have kiddos in the new building in September of 2026. Dragging that out later could result in financial risks for the project and school district, Mackenzie cautioned.
“It’s based on a very aggressive schedule. We need to get a school in place,” he said. “If we slow down design, everything slows down.”
Alison Shaw said she worries by the time the school district hears the community’s concerns in January, it will be too late in the process to shift the building back to the west.
The city, meanwhile, has set money aside for a new park at the site.
"The City of North Vancouver values neighbourhood parks as part a healthy city for all people. We look forward to working with the North Vancouver School District and the community to define and implement a future neighbourhood park on the school district’s site as part of their Cloverley School project," a statement from the city read.
