Rosemont Court
Tuesday evening (April 3rd) I attended an open house at the Rosewood Park Alliance Church, the former St. Patrick’s Elementary school and the site of a proposed new housing development (City and leader post). THis project is notable because the developer, Newrock Developments, is partnering with Classic Communities to provide mortgage assistance to buyers as was done with the Eastgate Villas development last year.
There will be 78 town-house style units in three different sizes, two to three bedrooms, all more than 1000 sqft. The cost is estimated between $240 000 and $260 000, but Classic Communities provides money towards the mortgage down-payment, providing assistance in home ownership.
The Future of Connaught Community School
Today we have a guest post by Trish Elliott about the future of The Connaught Community School. Enjoy!
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By Trish Elliott
École Connaught Community School, located on Elphinstone and 13th, is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2012. For the past year, students, community organizations and parents have been engaged in exploring and celebrating the school’s cultural and architectural heritage. A big community festival is planned for Sept. 29-30 on the school grounds, which in recent years have been transformed by community volunteers into an urban park for all to enjoy.
Meanwhile, the Regina Public School Board board invited citizens to attend a meeting in the school gym on April 4. Their notice stated “examples of 21st Century schools will be provided,” followed by further meetings “where decisions as to the future facility will be made.”
The major question is whether the century-old building will undergo a major renovation, or whether it will be simply demolished and replaced with a modern structure.
The contracted consultant is P3Architecture, the same firm heading up the Regina Public Library and Crescent Apartments projects. Looking at it optimistically, this could be an excellent opportunity to establish a new model for how we treat schools in Regina – one that respects local heritage and recognizes the considerable environmental and economic benefits of renovation. With its wide hallways and thick foundations, Connaught is as good a candidate for renovation as any school could be.
This won’t be an easy corner to turn, however. For starters, P3A’s project gallery shows no examples of previous heritage restorations, although representative James Youk said the firm does have renovation work on its resume, and that they have a highly qualified heritage architect on their team.
Certainly respect for the existing built environment was high on the minds of many meeting participants. However, the process by which this input will go forward remains unclear. Both P3A and board officials stated no decisions will be made, despite what the earlier public notice said.
Instead, the option of either a rebuild or a renovation will be placed before the Ministry for final arbitration. It was explained the options will be cost-only – meaning numbers will rule, not community sentiment. How the numbers are put together – what gets valued and what doesn’t get valued – becomes highly important in this situation.
Cathedral Area residents have never done well by sitting back and putting their fate in the hands of others to decide. One of the questions that arose was why the consultant must put forward a rebuild option, if there is a clear community preference for renovation of the existing structure. The answer seemed to be ‘just because.’
Active citizen participation at the next meeting – Thursday, April 26, 7 p.m. in the school gym – is crucial for shaping what kind of recommendation goes forward, and for monitoring how engineering and heritage assessments will be interpreted.
From the provincial level down to local school boards, the system is highly biased toward endless cycles of demolition and new construction. The bias was clear even in the discussion of school grounds, when a board representative stated the board will create and maintain green spaces and playgrounds for new builds, although it does not do so for its existing buildings (Parents raise funds and cut the grass, with the City of Regina chipping in matching grants).
New buildings are easier to deconstruct, making school removals a simpler process. In public comments, both the province and Regina Public have let it be known that school buildings should not last more than 50 years. The board has shown a preference for single-storey large-footprint construction to replace compact older buildings. As well, a new engineer’s report declares Connaught will become unsafe within five years. This provides a strong tool for convincing the school community that the century-old building must come down ‘for the sake of the children.’
The board generally defends unpopular decisions by saying it’s ‘all about the children.’
But the future of Connaught School is also all about the surrounding community, all about the city, and all about establishing sound fix-it-first policies that protect the public interest.
At issue is ongoing neglect of public buildings and chronic under-funding of the activities that go on inside them – a problem certainly not restricted to the education sector. Meanwhile, tremendous resources go into sod-turnings for new buildings that will face their own neglected future until someone declares them unfit, unleashing the next round of multi-million-dollar tenders.
As a historic school, Connaught offers its students and surrounding community cultural and educational value that cannot be replaced at any price. It provides a green, community-built public space that will most certainly be engulfed by new construction. Anchoring one end of the city’s most significant heritage corridor, its future is important to all Regina citizens.
Scheduled meetings are open to all. Here are some helpful resources for those who are interested in historic schools:
Our Living Legacy (short video)
Renovate or Replace? The Case for Restoring and Reusing Older School Buildings
Historic School Renovation Success Stories
Older and Historic Schools: Restoration or Replacement and the Role of the Feasibility Study
Renovating Schools: Good for the Pocketbook and Good for the Soul
A Community Guide to Saving Older Schools
How to Save Your Historic School: 10 Action Steps
Design Regina Meeting
Tuesday there were three design Regina meetings at the Artesian on 13th Avenue to discuss Strategic Priorities from the OCP process. You can view the slide deck for the presentation on the Design Regina website (here).
If you want to participate in the discussion, there is a survey you can fill out(here). Survey’s are due by April 3rd, any submitted by the deadline will be included in the report to Executive Committee on April 25th and then on to City Council on April 30th. If you want to present at Council, contact the City Clerk’s office by calling 777-7000 or submit an Online Request Form, the Clerk’s office will contact you with information. You can find information on presenting as a delegation from the City website (here).
For a review of the meeting, continue past the jump.
Design Regina: Community Priorities
There will be three follow-up Design Regina public information meetings tomorrow at the Artesian on 13th Avenue. The meetings will look at a refined list of eight community priorities developed during the Design Regina workshops held last October (here and here). The meetings will start at noon, 5pm and 7pm.
The list of eight priorities that will be presented tomorrow is below:
- Develop Complete Neighbourhoods
- Embrace and Invest in Arts, Culture, Sport and Recreation
- Support the Availability of Diverse Housing Options
- Create Better Ways of Getting Around
- Promote Conservation & Environmental Stewardship
- Achieve Financial Sustainability
- Foster Economic Prosperity
- Optimize Regional Cooperation
The priorities last October after the first day were:
- Design Complete Communities
- Embrace and Invest in Arts and Culture
- Affordable and appropriate housing for all
- More and better options for movement
- Conservation and environmental stewardship
- Adopt life-cycle costing
- New revenue generating tools
- New strategy for engagement and collaboration
With the last two priorities added after the second day.
The Crescent Apartments: Now and Soon to be
We have known for some time that the Crescent Apartments at 1550 14th Avenue are not long for this world. The tenants have received their eviction notices. The building appears to be empty. Over the last few weeks, the property owner attempt to remove the Crescent Apartments from the Heritage Holding bylaw to expedite the removal of the building and allow construction of a new structure.
On February 29th, Regina Planning Commission met to review the application (RPC 12-11) from Westland Ventures Inc. and Granite Developments Inc. This meeting usefully highlighted some of the limitations of the City’s ability to preserve heritage buildings. Owners must apply for heritage designation, with the City only notifying property owners of potential financial incentives with designation once a potential change to a property/building is in the works. There’s one person dedicated to reviewing buildings on the heritage holding bylaw list. Any changes that trigger a permit will come across their desk. With only one person, the city seems to lack the capacity to take a pro-active approach with property owners before changes get underway.
It’s a froggy life!
This article is cross-posted from RUE contributor Katherine Forster’s blog ‘dandelions and concrete‘. Katherine recently relocated to Lindsay, Ontario to learn about natural ecosystems, the restoration of wildlife habitat and how to live in harmony with nature.
Just found out about this project from the Toronto Zoo website:
“Just Add Water is a U.K. national campaign to encourage the public to dig wildlife ponds, especially in urban environments. In some areas this can counteract the enormous loss of countryside ponds in recent years, and help local frogs, newts and other wildlife flourish.
One third of ponds are thought to have disappeared in the last fifty years or so and of those that remain more than 80% are thought to be in ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ condition.
This has had an enormous impact on wildlife, particularly amphibians. Your efforts locally can make a big difference.”
What a great idea!!! Check out the details including tons of info on how to build your pond here: Just Add Water!
And don’t forget that Save the Frog day is April 29th 2012!!
Downtown Transportation Study Open House
Today you can attend an open house at Cornwall Centre to look at the City’s Downtown transportation plans (see the City website for more). The event runs from 10am to 7pm.
