More than 12 years ago, residents of Merton Street took Sunnybrook School to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). Now they’re at it again.
Currently, residents are protesting a rezoning application approval that allows Sunnybrook School to build a two-storey addition on a next-door residential lot acquired by the school.
“I would say our concerns are very similar,” said local resident Geoffrey Jones, representing the Merton Street Residents Association at the OMB. “It’s the same issues that we had in 1998.”
Originally, local residents brought the school to the OMB in protest of a two-storey addition.
The final report revealed that parents who were picking up and dropping off their children at the school congested the street that was also used by locals. The residents feared the addition would mean more students, which means more traffic congestion.
The OMB eventually ruled that Sunnybrook School cap school enrollment at 150 students and that the school could only build a minor addition with an understanding that no further outward expansion would be made in the future.
Irene Davy, principal for Sunnybrook School, said that a neighbour recently had approached the school about the school purchasing the adjacent lot. Davy said the bigger lot allows for a reasonable expansion that would include increasing the loading zone pickup and drop-off area.
The expansion would not include building any new classrooms, but would include an office for the vice-principal and a better French room, drama space, locker room and playground.
“The expansion is to improve the facilities for the same number of students we currently have,” said Davy. “We’re really making the most of a tiny space right now.”
However, the expansion would also mean the conversion of a residential lot to more of a commercial or institutional use, said Eric Gillespie, the lawyer representing the street’s residents.
“There are examples within a couple of blocks of this location where seven to nine houses have been converted,” said Gillespie, referring to other school expansions, such as one on Balliol Street. “That’s one of the key questions … whether this fundamentally will change the character of the neighbourhood.”
Jones said there is still a problem with traffic congestion due to the school, and Gillespie confirmed that local residents are worried it will only become worse.
The official OMB appeal is booked for July 5, but Gillespie said all parties are hoping for a private resolution before then.