Would-be school field too tiny?

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This article was published 02/07/2009 (6150 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — The triangle of land coveted by Gordon Bell High School is too small and possibly too dangerous to be a sports field, city planners say in an internal memo obtained by the Free Press.

For the past 10 months, Gordon Bell students, inner-city activists and Winnipeg Centre MP Pat Martin have been trying to convince Canada Post to abandon a plan to build a letter-sorting depot on the property. The one-hectare vacant lot bounded by Broadway, Portage Avenue and Borrowman Street, is immediately west of the inner-city school.

The grassroots campaign, which began after Canada Post bought the vacant plot, appeared to have succeeded in late June, when Martin told graduating Gordon Bell students the Crown corporation had found another downtown location for its depot.

Canada Post, however, has not corroborated the MP’s statement. And city planners consider the site less than ideal for recreation, given its relatively small size and proximity to busy Broadway and Portage Avenue.

In a May 6 memo to planning and property director Deepak Joshi, senior planner Michael Robinson and park strategist Donna Beaton suggest the triangle of land is not large enough to house a junior high soccer field or amateur baseball diamond, let alone regulation sporting fields, even if Borrowman Street is closed and incorporated into the green space. Parks adjacent high schools are ideally two or three times larger, they write.

The planners also fear the potential for accidents if balls or students wind up in heavy traffic and say a chain-link fence no less than three metres high would have to be erected around the triangle.

"This would create a real penitentiary feel to the space, not the inviting appearance we’d like attributed to our parks," they write. "For active open space, particularly for sports fields, this would not be considered an ideal site. In addition to the traffic and safety concerns, we’d have some concerns about the environment of gas and fumes that circles the site. Perhaps the health department could do a measurement of particulates in the air."

The factors that make the triangle unsuitable as a sports field make it desirable for commercial use, the planners add, noting the city currently earns $72,000 in property taxes from the vacant lot but would receive mere thousands if it became school property.

The planners’ report did not faze Martin, who dismissed the tax issue as a red herring and said most Winnipeg schools don’t have regulation-sized sports fields.

"Who gives a (s ). At least they can kick a ball around," said the NDP MP. "I’m not concerned about their measurements. We’re going to take whatever space we have and make the best of it."

While Martin praised the planners for "playing devil’s advocate," he said the acquisition of the sports field will move forward, beginning with a formal application to close off Borrowman Street.

"I expect co-operation from city hall and council, because this is the will of the people," he said.

The city must be compassionate to inner-city students, added activist Nancy Chippendale, noting Gordon Bell was once surrounded by vacant lands but grew encircled by concrete over the decades.

"I do believe special allowances could be made to consider the needs of the youth and children," she said.

Canada Post is still exploring its letter-sorting depot options, spokeswoman Colleen Frick said in June.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca