At least 1,200 families will soon move into the Bronte Road development that was once the Saw-Whet golf course and is now being marketed as Glen Abbey Encore.
But Oakville councillor Allan Elgar is concerned that children in the community may never attend a school in their neighbourhood.
Marketing maps showing the development of the community mark a 4.5-acre rectangle in the middle as a “future school or residential phase.”
But thanks to a clause buried in the plan of subdivision, the Halton District School Board has only until March 2027 to purchase the lot for a new elementary school.
If the board doesn’t come up with cash to buy the land by then, the developer has the right to fill the lot with additional homes.
“And in fact, that is exactly what is going to happen,” warned Ward 4 councillor Elgar during a recent town planning and development council meeting.
“There is absolutely zero dollars in the 10-year forecast. It’s already been decided the children will be bused outside of this island subdivision, and there will never be a school because the land will be gone.”
Although mentioned on the school board’s wish list of unfunded elementary projects, the school ranks behind ten others needed between 2023 and 2028.
A letter from the school board intended to be distributed to prospective buyers warns that “there is no guarantee that this school will be constructed.”
“Right now, it’s not part of our top priorities for the area,” admits Fred Thibeault, the HDSB’s general manager, planning.
However, he says the board will spend the next five years looking at the data to decide if a school is needed. And if it is, money from the board's development charge reserve fund could be used to purchase the lot.
“We will monitor enrolment and see how the community develops and how many students we yield from it,” he said. “We believe in this case it’s an adequate time to make a decision."
He added that the option to purchase clause is a common one the board uses in development situations where it’s unclear when or if a school will be needed.
While 1,200 units are slated to be built on the former golf course property wedged between Bronte Road and the Fourteen Mile Creek lands, he says that may not be enough to require a school.
“It’s hard to make the call just based on the number of units,” he said. “It all depends on the yield of students per unit.”
Elementary students to attend Heritage Glen
For now, students moving into Glen Abbey Encore will be directed to Heritage Glen, a Glen Abbey elementary school expected to be at only 76% capacity in 2023.
English high school students will attend Abbey Park, while French Immersion high school students will be sent to Thomas A. Blakelock.
The school board’s long-range plan had factored in the possible residential development of the Glen Abbey golf course, which would have added many new students to schools in that area.
“The Glen Abbey development being pulled obviously creates less of an accommodation pressure on the board and existing facilities,” said Thibeault, who said the board will be looking at whether new students can be accommodated within area schools.
According to a spokesperson from Argo Developments, about 200 homes in the development (previously referred to as Bronte Green) are now occupied. Full completion of the community's 1,200 units is expected to take another five years.
The development was approved in an Ontario Municipal Board settlement between the town of Oakville and Bronte Green in 2017.