I was reading the July 13 Council package when two numbers caught my attention: six new school sites and an estimated land value of $325 million.
Langley School District expects 23,532 new housing units across the Township and City over the next ten years. Of those, 19,491 are expected in the Township.
The district estimates this growth will add 7,346 school-age children, including 6,561 from development in the Township. I wanted to understand what had actually been approved and how the proposed land purchases could be funded.
Are six new schools approved for construction?
Fact Check: These are proposed school sites, not construction approvals.
The School District identified five sites in Willoughby and one in Brookswood-Fernridge.
They include land for Southwest Latimer and Northeast Gordon, elementary school sites in the Williams and Smith neighbourhoods, a third Willoughby middle school and a Brookswood-Fernridge middle school.
Together, the sites would require about 60 acres with an estimated land value of $325 million.
That figure is for land. It does not include the cost of designing, constructing, furnishing or operating the schools. The proposal also says it does not include sites already approved for acquisition.
Adding a site to the capital plan is an important planning step, but it does not mean the land purchase or school construction has been approved.
Did Township Council formally accept the proposed sites?
Fact Check: Not by a recorded vote, but the proposal may now be deemed accepted.
Council received the School District’s letter at the June 29 meeting.
Councillor Kim Richter, seconded by Councillor Blair Whitmarsh, moved that the matter be referred to staff for a report on the Willoughby locations. The motion carried. Mayor Eric Woodward and Councillors Tim Baillie, Steve Ferguson and Rob Rindt were recorded as opposed.
Staff returned with the July 13 memorandum explaining the five Willoughby sites. I did not find a later motion in the published records accepting or objecting to the full proposal.
Under the Local Government Act, a local government has 60 days after receiving the request to accept the School Board’s resolution or identify the sites to which it objects.
If it does not respond within that period, it is deemed to have agreed to the proposed school site requirements.
The School District’s letter is dated June 17, but the public record does not state exactly when the Township received the formal request. So I would be careful about assigning a precise deadline.
Will development charges cover 35 percent of the land cost?
Fact Check: Not under the current provincial caps.
School Site Acquisition Charges are collected from new residential development to help school districts purchase land.
The provincial formula is based on recovering 35 percent of the estimated land value. For this proposal, the School District calculated charges ranging from $6,042 for low-density development to $3,625 for high-density development.
The provincial regulation caps those charges at $1,000 and $600 respectively, with similar caps for the categories in between.
The School District noted that the calculated low-density charge would be more than six times the provincial maximum. It recommended no change because the existing charges are already limited by those caps.
That does not mean the Township automatically pays the difference. Land purchases and school construction still depend on School District and provincial capital decisions. The records I reviewed do not provide a complete funding plan for all six sites.
I will continue to be watching whether Council’s position on the sites is recorded through a direct resolution or through the Act’s deemed-agreement rule.