It was a tight vote, but the City of Barrie has approved a site plan for a new south end high school.
During Monday’s city council meeting, councillors voted 6-5 in favour of a site plan proposed by the Simcoe County District School Board. It’s been a contentious issue for the last three years.
“I think council ultimately said someone had to end this dispute and get the school built,” says Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman. “Despite all the frustrations a number of members of council felt this was the best course of action.”
The decision comes months after the SCDSB decided they would take the site plan issue to the Ontario Municipal Board.
Both sides have been at odds over where the school should be located. The board wants to build the school on the south side of a lot on Mapleview Drive and Prince William Way. The city wanted it on the north side.
“So now we have site plan approval, so we can get ministry approval, we can’t do that until we get site planned,” says SCDSB chairperson Peter Beacock. “Then we have to tender, but we don’t know what we’re tendering yet exactly because we don’t know what the conditions are of the site plan. So there will be some back and forth there.”
Councillors on both sides of the vote expressed their frustration with the school board’s approach to the project. Councillor Arif Kahn called the board bullies, but still voted yes.
The board says it will not rescind its application to the OMB just yet. It plans to have internal talks on Tuesday before making any decisions on what to do from here.
