Moose Jaw City Council is taking its final steps to make the joint-use school in the Westheath subdivision a reality. 

City council voted 7-1 in favour of executing municipal lease and development and servicing agreements with the Prairie South School Division and the Holy Trinity Catholic School Division. 

Coun. Kim Robinson was the lone councillor opposed. He questioned city administration about how the site was selected. City manager Jim Puffalt and director of planning and development services Michelle Sanson reiterated that the city was never consulted when choosing the site for the school. 

"It certainly added to the complexity of this whole project. We did notify the schools and the province that we were unhappy with the way it was chosen, but in the end, they believe that that was the best location for the new school site," said Puffalt. 

The Lease agreement allows the school to operate on the municipal reserve land, while the development and servicing agreement outlines the terms of developing and servicing Westheath Phases 5 and 6 as outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding between the parties. It was noted that the Ministry of Education has been removed from both agreements and it is only between the city and the school divisions. 

According to the development and leasing agreement, the school boards will pay $15,000 for land payments per acre for 10.71 acres for a total of $160,650 and $52,636 for development levies for a total of $563,373 based on 2022 development levy rates. In total, the fees due are $724,023. 

City administration received approval to proceed with a street and lane closure bylaw that falls within the development. This is simply housekeeping as Westheath Phases 5 and 6 were subdivided between the late 1970s and early 1980s and registered with Information Services Corporation, yet it was never developed. The bylaw would close the undeveloped registered roads and lanes. A sale of municipal reserve bylaw was also required to close two municipal reserves. 

"I know it is a really complex agreement, especially when we switched from a sale to a municipal reserve. That opened up a whole other can of worms in the whole process. I know we have seen bylaws come before us in a really short amount of time so I'm really hoping that these rise to the top as far as a priority," said Coun. Crystal Froese. 

Finally, city council authorized the preparation to rezone Westheath Phases 5 and 6. About 10.71 acres will be rezoned as community service and institutional district for the school. There will be one lot at 1.02 acres that will be zoned as medium-density residential, 11 lots between 0.1 to 0.14 acres zoned as low-density residential and 94 lots between 0.11 to 0.28 acres that will be zoned as a large lot, low-density residential district. 

The Westheath Phase 5 and 6 concept plan includes the school with a park, 105 single-family lots and a townhouse development of about 25 units. The subdivision will have four roadways around the school and park, two collector roads and two local roads. To alleviate traffic concerns, there will be off-street staff and visitor parking, an off-street "car drop" zone, a car layby for students being dropped off or being picked up and a dedicated bus corral. 

Phase 5 would be the school and residential lots north of the school. Meanwhile, Phase 6, would be the residential lots and townhouses east and west of the school and the road south of the school. 

According to the city, the school boards intend to issue tenders for construction in January, award the contracts in February and begin construction in May at the earliest. City administration has notified the school boards that the bylaw and rezoning process can take from four to six months and made the board aware of the risks as construction cannot take place until after the bylaw and rezoning process is complete. 

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