I guess this part of Halifax so;
3 sites left for new school in Porters Lake
Vacant lot on 107 top choice for $10.4m facility
By KRISTEN LIPSCOMBE Education Reporter
Fri. Nov 28 - 7:16 AM
The Halifax regional school board has picked three possible spots for its new elementary school in Porters Lake.
The No. 1 choice for school construction is a site that’s "on the road that leads from the 107 into the Porters Lake business community," Charles Clattenburg, the board’s director of operations services, said Thursday.
"It’s a piece of land that is vacant . . . and is available," he said of the lot bounded by the Highway 107 extension and straddled by the Trans Canada Trail. "It is the centre of the catchment area for the students that would be attending the school."
Mr. Clattenburg said another benefit would be that the municipality is considering expanding Metro Transit out to that area, while it also falls into "the development boundary for the Porters Lake community."
"If there was ever any servicing of the Porters Lake community with water and sewer, that would be within the service boundary that they would be looking at."
But while that was the top spot pinpointed by the board’s site selection committee, made up of school and community representatives, it’s not the only potential location for the new facility.
Mr. Clattenburg presented three pieces of land to the city’s recently elected board members during a meeting Wednesday night in Dartmouth. The members voted in favour of passing the recommended sites on to the Education and Infrastructure Renewal departments.
He said the second pick is the Sobeys property at Exit 20 of Highway 107, while a site bounded by Highway 207 and Shore Drive is last on the list because it’s "farthest away from the real community itself."
Both the second and third sites are outside the municipality’s service boundaries, he added. More details on the pros and cons for each site are available online at
www.thechronicleherald.ca.
The new $10.4-million school will replace two buildings, bringing together students in grades Primary and 1 from Lakeview Consolidated Elementary’s West Chezzetcook location and students in grades 2 through 6 from the school’s Porters Lake location.
Back in 2003, the provincial government said the Porters Lake building would get a $4.7-million upgrade, but Education Minister Karen Casey surprised the school board and school staff alike in April when she announced the brand new building for all elementary grade levels.
Education Department spokesman Dan Harrison confirmed Thursday that the school is still on track to open in September 2010. But he said the province will have to pick a preferred site and still has to carry out environmental and geological assessments, as well as safety and traffic studies.