By David F. Rooney
Eager to keep moving forward with the disposition of the old Big Eddy School property, School District 19 can only wait patiently while City staff pore over its rezoning application, Superintendent Mike Hooker told trustees on Tuesday, October 22.
“We’ve done all the work and now were waiting,” he said.
SD 19 staff had applied for rezoning and subdivision approval on September 6 and had hoped to have all the red tape wrapped up by now. But it’s still moving through the bureaucracy.
“We do not anticipate being able to address the next steps with respect to actual disposition of the property until December,” Hooker said, adding that the district has already “fielded a number of inquiries regarding the sale of the lots
Meanwhile, no decision has yet been made regarding the disposition of the historic Mountain View School building.
Options for redevelopment of that property will be presented to the general public during an Open House to be held at Mountain View on Saturday, November 16 from 10 am until 5 pm.
The building will certainly have to be rehabilitated and that will cost anywhere between $1.5 million and $2.5 million.
However, unless SD 19 moves decisively a purchaser could decide to demolish the building and construct something different on its site.
“As the last remaining large-scale early school in Revelstoke, MVE is considered one of the most significant heritage buildings in the city,” Hooker wrote in a report to the Board of Trustees.
“Despite its recognized heritage value, Mountain View has not been placed on the Revelstoke Heritage Register and (as a consequence) has no legal protection, A Statement of Significance has never been prepared, which would document the heritage value of the school. Based on feedback to date we have instructed (heritage consultant) Don Luxton to prepare a State of Significance for the 1914 building. The site should receive heritage designation so that it will be retained in perpetuity. Heritage designation will enable future changes to the site to be managed through the planning process.”
Potential uses of the Mount Begbie site will not be assesses until the outcomes of the Big Eddy and Mountain View sites are known, he said.
Please click here to read Hooker’s report on the district’s three surplus schools.
