Calgary city councillors declined an application for a charter school in an industrial area sandwiched between Deerfoot Trail and the Calgary International Airport.

Calgary city councillors denied an attempt by Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal to put forward an approval of the plan at the April 21 Public Hearing Meeting of Council, in a vote of 2-12.

The initial recommendation from the Calgary Planning Commission was to refuse and abandon the proposed bylaw that would have allowed the K-12 school use through a Direct Control district.

The roughly 11-acre location was proposed in the Deerfoot Business Centre at 1020 – 68 Avenue NE. In the area is a number of warehouses, manufacturing and heavy industry-related operations.

The closest public amenity was the City of Calgary Fitness Park at Deerfoot City, which is 386 metres away, according to city admin. There are also three bus stops that are within a one-minute walking distance.

Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal said he’d been working with the applicant for some time to find a location for the proposed charter school. He said there’s a surplus of industrial land in Calgary until 2041, referencing a Cushman and Wakefield report.

“I can support it, because again, schooling is near and dear to my heart,”

“There was a child sitting here was looking forward to going to school in September, and this could be an opportunity for him to go to that school.”

Other councillors appreciated the need for schools, but felt the location wasn’t appropriate. Upon questioning, city admin referenced concerns with traffic, potential environmental hazards from surrounding sites, and the potential “sterilization” of nearby sites that require a certain setback from schools.

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said there are other light industrial areas in Calgary –  like Franklin, Meridian and Horizon – that allow schools.

“I’m not sure why we’re even considering this, and especially in that heavy industrial area that could potentially limit the ability for future development in this area, especially in such close proximity to our airport,” he said.

“This is probably the worst place in the city to put this type of use.”

Planning commission questions the site

The Calgary Planning Commission’s recommendations to abandon shared similar concerns with the location.

Commissioner Nathan Hawryluk said that approving the application would open the door to needed upgrades for intersections, sidewalks and even pathways in the area.

He noted that the industrial land use planning policy specifically stipulates that it “discourages uses such as stand-alone office use, regional retail developments, places of worship, public or private schools and residential uses in industrial areas.”

Hawyrluk wrote in his response to the plan, that he’s sympathetic to filling vacant buildings that are surrounded by serviced infrastructure.

“This application is a reminder that we need to find a real plan for finding space for charter schools. Ideally, that land would be located by people and not in the middle of industrial areas,” he wrote.

Rocky Mountain Charter School Foundation’s Nasser Kadri said that council’s decision means there’s no home for 750 kids come September. According to the organization’s website, they had conditional approval from Alberta Education for health and wellness based programming at the facility.

“City council had an opportunity to find them at home. Thirty years of experience in education, I totally believe that this site is perfect in many ways,” Kadri said.  

“I understand that it’s industrial, but which takes precedence: Industrial or our kids? So right now, we have no home.”

Kadri said that they could have mitigated some of the concerns, particularly with the flexibility an 11-acre site provided. Now they won’t have that chance.

Dhaliwal said all he was looking for was an approval of the land-use change, allowing them to apply for a development permit that could have outlined certain conditions for their existence in an industrial area.

“What we were discussing today was the land use. It’s not about the user, it’s about the use. The user will comment at DP (development permit) stage, and that’s what I was hoping that, if we can give it to the DP stage,” he said.

“At the DP stage, if it’s identified that this is not going to work, it’s not going to work.”

The land use application will now be abandoned.