New Lonsdale School Board Admin Building Dubbed 'Taj Mahal'

Comments from the advertised display board and discussion Tuesday night at the Harry Jerome Memorial Centre regarding the School Board / Polygon development at the Lonsdale School site. (June 24th, '09)

Several observations:

Improvements: from the earlier plan
- The residential buildings are sited north and south to give some outlook and massing relief to the buildings across on both 22nd and 21st streets.
- The HYAD project is nicely incorporated into the Chesterfield area and has adequate parking for caregivers to the residents.
- The parking ingress and exit for all the residential buildings is now located off Chesterfield Ave
- The 21st street parking access is only for the school admin building and none of the existing Rey Sargeant Park needs to be used

Concerns:
1) Local residents are browned off at the residential buildings heights changing from 4 stories to 5 stories. Density, views, outlooks, privacy, traffic and parking, shadowing etc. For the development, this will add 45 suites, bring the total to 260, plus 16 HYAD units (14 resident, 2 mgmt stes).
2) all residential visitor parking is located in the underground parkade off Chesterfield and not likely to be used by visitors, which will create traffic jams and overload traffic on 22nd street which is a very narrow street. ( front entrances to the residential buildings are on 22nd st.)

Big concern:
- A question was asked to the school board. How many staff will work in the school board office? Answer = approx 110-120 staff.
How many parking spaces are in the underground parkade? Answer = 86 spaces. (includes 5 visitor spaces.)

Special Events:
NV City and the School Board have agreed that Centennial Theatre parking can be an overflow for special events at the school board and 'Arts for Kids' and vice versa for special events at the Theatre. Wonder how many of the public will be aware ....

3) Problem: Woefully inadequate parking at the school board admin office building.
- Inadequate parking for staff
- Inadequate parking for students who will attend some classes at the school board admin offices
- Inadequate parking for visitors
- Inadequate parking for teachers who will attend workshops/meetings at the school board offices
- Woefully inadequate parking for the 'Arts For Kids' students. 1800 dist 44 school children are offered participation in this program 3 days a week, all year. Some of this is all day school hours (drop off and pick up by parents). There are also regular after school and weekend programs. In addition for special events, the children will be bussed to the site.
The only planning for parent drop-off and pick-up parking is on Lonsdale in front of the building.

Local Resident and Guest comments:

"The School Board is planning to build a 'Taj Mahal' administration building, 90 ft high, with 5 stories for staff office and classrooms above the 2 level 'Arts For Kids' lobby level, plus a sub-penthouse boardroom, and a penthouse for whatever? (query-lunchroom?), while the student population is declining .... "

"They are trying to force this overloaded density onto a residential neighborhood, to pay for the $38 million dollar construction of the 'Taj Mahal' School Board office on Lonsdale, when they have property at the Queen Mary School site and at the Lucas Centre."

The planned admin building on Lonsdale will be 90 ft high. "Towering over Lonsdale, the entire length of the school board property. A straight up and down facade. No set back." "It doesn't fit in with the neighborhood of 3 and 4 storey buildings."

And the new plan requires the school board building be sited closer to Lonsdale. "Can we save the chestnut trees on Lonsdale?" No answer, no arborist report available at the meeting.

When asked why they need all this density revenue, the School Board replied that they need 3 1/2 million for the Ridgeway School upgrade and similiar upgrades to Queen Mary School. (compare $3.5 x 2 to the cost of$38m to build the admin office bldg.)

When asked why they need so much space in the admin bldg, the School Board replied "with declining student enrollment, we need to find new sources of funding, such as overseas students, and we need more staff to do this."

When asked why they are not using monies from selling/developing the land at the Queen Mary School location, they replied that "the funds from the sale of lands are years down the road, maybe 5 years". A comment from the crowd "My bank understands asset values. Doesn't theirs?"

When asked why they are not relocating the school board administration site to the Lucas Centre location and upgrading/rebuilding the buildings there and keeping the 'Arts For Kids' location there, with all the adequate parking and ideal quiet surroundings, there was no time to answer this question. Except "we need the funds in the present budget. This is what we have planned."

A Townhall meeting is planned for September.