It has been 15 years since the Big Eddy Elementary School was closed due to falling numbers. Since that time, the youth of the Big Eddy area have been commuting across the bridge to Columbia Park Elementary. The land that the school once sat on is zoned for institutional; School District 19 would like to re-zone to R2A, which would be suited towards low-density residential housing.
The land is big enough to justify seven half-acre lots across the property line, that could be a potential benefit to many growing families searching for a place to own. The original application was submitted on September 3rd, 2013, however, with the recent change in water distribution, the plans have been impacted.
With the City of Revelstoke inundated with construction permits throughout 2017, 
not only were contractors postponing work, the school district was also subject to the waiting period, therefore, the Preliminary Layout Approval that was submitted in in May of 2017, was backlogged. In June, the City requested a new subdivision application complete with the fees, in which the district complied only to be told that there would ba a further waiting period of roughly two months.
With several inquiries from late summer to early fall, SD19 was put further down the line until early December, at which time they were told that approval would most likely not be met until spring of 2018.
The Low Density Residential lots require a minimum of 1,700 square metres and a lot width of 25 metres, these lots will have 1,940 square metres with 28.59 metres of frontage along Begbie Road, just slightly bigger than the minimum requirements. Despite these setbacks, potential buyers of the parcelled out land are still knocking on the door.
In a Board of Education summary, Superintendent Mike Hooker stated “We are getting regular inquiries regarding the sale of the lots, sometimes two or three within a single week, which is encouraging, considering the delays we have been experiencing.”
