On Monday, October 26, 2015, North Vancouver City Council approved an amendment to the City’s official community plan to rezone the property at 450 East 5th Street. The proposal by Anthem Properties for the construction of nine single-family homes will now proceed on the .58 acre site formerly occupied by Ridgeway Annex. The Annex was permanently closed in 2011 and was not considered viable as a future school site, as the small size of the land parcel does not meet current Ministry standards.
The conditional purchase agreement for the property, valued at $5.1 million, will be finalized between Anthem Properties and the North Vancouver School District. The entire proceeds from the sale will be directed to retire the remaining debt to the Ministry of Education for the rebuilding of Sutherland Secondary and Westview Elementary.
For almost three years, the School District has been diligently working to gain approval from the Ministry of Education to convert the estimated $37.8M seismic project for Argyle Secondary into a full replacement school, with the cost of the preferred option currently estimated at $51.5M. This approval is subject to the earlier debt being repaid and financing the cost difference between the approved seismic upgrade and the requested full replacement school.
“The repayment of this debt to the Ministry represents an important step forward to secure approval for the Arygle replacement project,” says North Vancouver School District Superintendent John Lewis. “The slate is clean, and serves to advance our request with the Ministry for a fully realized Argyle Secondary.”
Learn more here.
For further information, please contact:
Victoria Miles
Communications Manager
Phone 604.903.1254
E-mail vmiles@sd44.ca