Paradise council removing hurdles for new high school

Before construction can begin on the long-awaited high school in Paradise, council will have to rezone the land.

The Province announced in January that the high school will sit on some 5.7 hectares adjacent to Paradise Intermediate on Dianne Whalen Drive. Problem is, the site is zoned Open Space/Recreation and Residential.

During council’s September 15 committee of the whole meeting, councillor Glen Carew noted a school is not a permitted use in the Open Space/Recreation zone. Likewise, a school can only be permitted in a Residential zone following publication of a discretionary use notice and public consultation.

To that end, staff put forward a recommendation to rezone the land to Public Use, which would allow construction of a school.

The proposed amendment to the Town’s regulations will require a corresponding amendment to the St. John’s Urban Region Regional Plan.

Because of that, Carew explained, the Town will have to submit it to the Department of Municipalities and Community Affairs and hold public consultations.

Carew added that a road will need to be built to connect the dead-end on Dianne Whelan Drive to the rest of the community so that the area won’t be clogged by traffic from both schools.

The councillor also noted the site is above the 180-metre contour, which represents the service limit for water pressure within the town.  

“This constraint will be addressed with an interim servicing solution subject to the Town’s approval until a permanent solution is implemented through future municipal servicing infrastructure,” said the councillor.

Carew noted the site was selected based on a number of factors, including its central location and nearness to Paradise Intermediate, Dianne Whalen Soccer Complex, Paradise Park, and the Double Ice Complex.

The selection also came down to land availability – or lack thereof.

“A high school requires a site of approximately five hectares to accommodate the school, associated infrastructure, and potential future expansion,” said Carew. “Given the limited availability of vacant land in the community centre area, the proposed site is considered appropriate for a development of this scale.”

Carew said the amendment will be advertised in The Shoreline, on the Town’s website, around town, through a mail out and through the Voyent Alert app.

“There have been many hard days of lobbying and advocacy on behalf of this council, the previous council, and previous councils and staff, and so it’s been a long, long time coming,” said Carew. “Myself, and Deputy Mayor (Kimberley) Street, and of course councillor (Jennifer) Hiscock, have all grown up here having to attend high schools in other municipalities, so I’m happy to see a high school is finally – it’s not done yet – but it’s getting closer to a reality, so I’m looking forward to seeing this work start.”

It fell to councillor Sheldon Antle at council’s public meeting last week to formally move the motion to start the rezoning.

“Anything that we can do to clear any hurdles from a municipal level on the development of the new high school here is Paradise, I’m pleased to move them forward,” Antle said. 

He then followed with a second motion, this one to waive all associated fees related to the amendments and associated permits that the Province will need to build the high school.

“Hopefully, we’ll get to see the end result of this,” Antle said. “It just goes to show that things can get done. It takes a long time. Advocacy is so important. So, when we check this box, then we move on to our next box, and start getting further conversations on infrastructure and remediation of traffic in Paradise.”