“We need that four acres for our students and subdivision growth,” she said, explaining that the Hamilton- Wentworth District School Board has no choice but to expropriate the land from a nearby developer in order for the board to be able to open a school by 2012, the deadline for retaining the project’s eligibility for high growth funding from the Ministry of Education.

A thorough review of 10 alternative sites was conducted by school board staff over the summer but failed to uncover a suitable location for a new elementary school, needed to house displaced students from Allan A. Greenleaf (AAG) Elementary School if the board were to pursue plans to annex the school to WDHS as a means of resolving the student accommodation crunch.

Three years of negotiations with Parkside Hills developer Jack Nesbitt, owner of the lands east of the high school, ended unsuccessfully late last year with the board announcing plans to get on with solving the lack of space at the high school. But the prospect of expropriation arose again early this year during public consultation when parents asked why the board wasn’t pursuing that avenue. At the time, a board administrator told parents the board has limited powers of expropriation and the procedure can often be a lengthy legal process.

Last week, while agreeing that the board’s expropriation powers are limited, Turkstra said, “We do have legislative authority to expropriate if we can demonstrate need.” The board feels it has good arguments, including the need for a second access off Parkside Drive to the site that holds WDHS, AAG and the Flamborough YMCA plus the board’s recent extensive search for an alternative site west of Centre Road.

“The board has done its due diligence,” said parent Gail Perrow, a spokesperson for Waterdown Education (WE), a parent’s lobby group that has been working cooperatively with the board since the beginning of the year to resolve student accommodation issues for all of Waterdown.

“I am quite happy that the board has been busy over the summer pursuing the (accommodation) plan while continuing to work with the WE group,” she said.

Ensuring student safety by “getting a second access to the site has been an issue all through our discussions,” Perrow added.

The move to expropriate the subdivision lands in north Waterdown marks the first time that the public school board has exercised its legislative authority to expropriate lands in the City of Hamilton. The landowner has 30 days to challenge the move and call for a hearing. Efforts to reach Nesbitt through his planning consultant were unsuccessful.

It could take upwards of three to nine months before the board takes ownership of the site, for which it will be required to pay market value.

Securing the site means that the board will now have more options at its disposal, Turkstra said, noting that there’ll be room to add to WDHS, build a new elementary school, or add new portables and parking spaces. Plans for the site, however, are dependent on how much the board receives in growth area funding from the Ministry of Education, which is expected to make its funding announcement next Friday (Oct. 31).

“Everyone (the board and local parents) is in a holding pattern until the announcement comes through,” Turkstra said.

Perrow agrees, but expressed hope that the funding will be sufficient to resolve Waterdown’s student accommodation pressures.

Turkstra stressed that all avenues were exhausted before the board decided to expropriate. Sites reviewed by board staff over the summer were abandoned either because they are in the greenbelt, zoned industrial or cannot meet the 2012 timeline for growth funding. Turkstra said the board also made another offer to the landowner in the late summer, but it was refused.

The long-term vision for Waterdown includes four new public elementary schools, one to replace AAG in west Waterdown, one to be built adjacent to Guy Brown School on the school’s Braeheid Avenue site, and one for both the Upcountry Estates subdivision in east Waterdown and a proposed subdivision in south Waterdown. An expanded high school is also part of the plan.