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No place for regional school

Re-Zoning Aspen Ridge from an elementary school site to a Regional K to12

Re: Re-Zoning Aspen Ridge from an elementary school site to a Regional K to12

A regional kindergarten to Grade 12 school is not a neighbourhood elementary school. Young children are not teenagers who drive cars and trucks and come and go from school at all hours during the day for classes and lunch, special events and whatever.

A regional school that includes a high school with a catchment area that encompasses the entire City of Red Deer and as far north as Ponoka and as far south as Olds, west to Leslieville and east to Delburne is not a neighbourhood elementary school.

A regional school that includes a high school has an oversized, imposing institutional gymnasium while a smaller neighbourhood elementary school does not.

A regional school that includes a high school requires larger parking lots with additional student parking needed throughout the neighbourhood. A regional high school’s parking requirements are not those of an elementary school.

Tucking a regional school that includes a high school into the middle of a Red Deer southeast neighbourhood is not putting a high school on the edge of a community next to major roadways to allow for school traffic as is required by current, existing planning rules.

Planning a regional school that includes a high school according to existing, sensible planning policy is good planning.

Building a regional school that includes a high school in the middle of a Red Deer southeast neighbourhood on a smaller elementary school site is bad planning.

Gary W. Wanless

Red Deer