The District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) is looking to build a new elementary school on Upper’s Lane in Rolling Meadows.
Stacy Veld, Associate Director of Education with the DSBN, gave a short presentation on the proposal to Thorold City Council last night.
“Last year we did present to our trustees the need for a school in this specific subdivision,” Veld said. “We’re so excited about the growth that is happening here in Thorold and our opportunity to jump on this development.”
The DSBN is looking to construct a school that would accommodate around 700 students.
“The intention would be for us to open for September 2027,” said Veld. “We are certainly engaging with the Ministry of Education on their platform of building schools faster so we got plans in place.”
Currently, the residents of Rolling Meadows are sending their kids to Ontario Public School in Thorold South, but that school has such an overflow of students that they’re using portables to accommodate all of them.
“In all of our growth areas portables is the strategy that is used to address the capacity concerns of new developments specifically,” Veld said. “The intention is that this school will relieve the portable pressure and those students will go to the new school once it’s built.”
There’s a conditional offer in place for Rolling Meadows to sell off the necessary land to the DSBN but for that agreement to be ratified, Upper's Lane needs to be extended so there's a road at the frontage of the lot.
“The remaining piece is for this road to be developed to allow us to move forward with the construction of that school,” said Veld. “We need that infrastructure in place.”
Councillors were enthusiastic about the project but some voiced concerns about building a dead end road. That’s why they proposed looking at extending Upper's Lane all the way to Thorold Townline Rd.
“We have to think about emergency response, we have to think about future maintenance,” agreed Manager of Community Services, Geoff Holman. “We need to make sure that we understand that just making a decision on building the 500 metres of road and what it is going to force us to do in the next two years in terms of finishing that work off.”
But because the DSBN is looking to start construction in the spring, the road past the school needs to be build sooner rather than later, otherwise the project might face delays.
“In order to close the purchase and sale agreement there’s a clause that we deliver the land and the constructed road within a 120-day timeline,” said William Heikoop, who is a planner with Upper Canada Consultants, working for Rolling Meadows.
“That basically puts it at the end of this year. If we’re not able to construct the roadway in an expeditious manner then we’re not going to be able to put asphalt down on that roadway before the snow flies.”
In the end, council decided to give City Hall staff permission to come to an agreement with the developer about permitting the easterly extension of Upper’s Lane for the purpose of accommodating the construction of the new school — with the caveat that the new section of road be completed in accordance with the road standards and needs of that area.
A staff report concerning the options for extending the road all the way to Thorold Townline Rd will come before council at a later date.
