Keheewin residents say surplus school site housing project concerns going unheard

Global News

3 days ago

Half a decade after it was approved, a plan to build affordable housing in a south Edmonton neighbourhood continues to be met with pushback from some people living in the area.
Residents are concerned about why a large-scale project was green-lit beside the K-6 Keheewin Elementary School, despite arguments that another space nearby would be better suited.
The land in Keheewin, along 19 Avenue near 105 Street, was originally slated for a junior high but became a surplus site in 2009, meaning it had been set aside decades ago for a school but the need for such a building no longer existed.
It's one of several surplus school sites the city has been redeveloping into affordable housing or proposed for such a purpose.
In 2020, city council approved the land sale to Civida Housing (formerly the Capital Region Housing Corporation), which was selected by city administration to lead the project.
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The company calls itself the largest provider of community and affordable housing in northern Alberta.
'Funded by the Government of Canada, Government of Alberta, and the City of Edmonton, Kaskitêw Asiskî will provide 132 high-quality homes to southwest Edmonton,' Civida said in a statement to Global News.
According to Civida, the development will be a mix of one- to four-bedroom affordable housing and other units rented out at the current market rate.
It will have two four-storey buildings containing 92 apartments, with an underground parkade, and 40 three- and four-bedroom townhomes with attached garages.
The breakdown is 80 affordable housing suites, 20 community housing suites and 32 market rental suites. It will also have an on-site daycare and shared activity space with community kitchen.
'This mixed-income community, to be operated in partnership with the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, includes both affordable and market rental units, and reflects a shared commitment to housing equity and Indigenous partnership.'
Gane Olsen was one of many residents who voiced concerns when the project was first approved in 2020, saying the scale was excessive and the site inappropriate.
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He's part of a group called Keheewin Residents for Responsible Development, which he said canvassed the area to get feedback from the neighbourhood.
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Five years ago at a city hall public hearing, residents expressed concerns over safety, congestion and the project being set about 30 metres away from the elementary school.
'When the project was rezoned in January of 2020, we had over a hundred people speak to council about the concerns: safety for our children, traffic and the parking, the drop-off zone and just the scope of the project of adding 400 to 500 people on a fairly small site.'
The same concerns from five years ago continue to exist today, Olsen said. He still believes the project is too large and too close to the school.
He also worries there will not be enough parking on the site, resulting in more street congestion surrounding the development. The Keheewin site is also two kilometres from the nearest transit centre.
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South Edmonton residents share concerns about affordable housing project
Olsen said residents proposed another site a few blocks to the west in Kaskitayo Park, which they say would be more appropriate for such a development.
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'We feel (it) will be far more attractive and certainly, I think, better for the residents there — a lot closer to the LRT, all the services that are there, and it just seems more practical.'
The site residents proposed is an Edmonton Catholic Schools high school site he suspects will also become rezoned, because that school board already has Louis St. Laurent Catholic Junior/Senior High School about five kilometres to the north near Southgate mall, and is building a new high school 10 kilometres to the south in the Heritage Valley area.
'We're confident they're not building a high school there and it will become a surplus site.'
Olsen said their suggestions were ignored.
'Concerns and disappointment that elected officials really didn't collaborate. Barely gave us any reasons why — it had to be on this site,' Olsen said.
'I just am blown away that city representatives wouldn't explore it. Our city councillor at the time wasn't interested in exploring it at all.'
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Olsen said the project went silent for years, and public consultations didn't take place until this year.
'Civida, the housing development company, showed us what was going to happen. So again, we were a bit blindsided,' Olsen said.
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'The frustration — is nothing over six years — and now it's here.'
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Controversial affordable housing in Keheewin approved by Edmonton city council
Five years ago, the council of the day said there hadn't been a lot of evidence to show proximity was a problem.
Coun. Aaron Paquette, who served on that council, said school surplus sites have generally gone to affordable housing — which is greatly needed in the city.
'This is families going into those homes. This is families who may not make as much money or maybe they got hit by hard times, or maybe they are on their way up,' Paquette said.
At that time, the ward was represented by Michael Walters, who is now running to be mayor. The current councillor for Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi, Jennifer Rice, said she has been engaged with the Keheewin community to address its concerns.
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Rice said she attended the developer's public open house on May 21 to review Civida's project materials and to hear directly from residents.
'Many attendees voiced concerns about the lack of early consultation and the scale and density of the proposed development within an active school environment,' Rice said in a statement on Wednesday.
Edmonton Public Schools says it attended the city's public consultations and is in contact with both the city and the developer to address any potential safety or traffic issues that may arise.
The school board also says there were traffic assessments, and they indicated the development's traffic impacts would be minimal.
Olsen says he's not convinced the assessments took place during peak rush hour.
'We had community people watching while they did that assessment,' Olsen said. 'We're not confident it was a representative sample of time of day or extended over periods of time.'
He claims there wouldn't be much pushback to the existing site if the developer had a smaller housing project.
'If you're looking at half the size, OK great, not a problem,' he said. 'Previous council laid the groundwork for affordable housing and it's going ahead and I understand that's a priority in the city. We understand that. Just the size in this small space, you potentially have another space. We don't even know if they've explored it and its viability.'
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Rice said she is committed to ensuring community concerns are taken seriously but with shovels basically already in the ground, residents like Olsen feel it's too little, too late.
'We want the public to know that the city has not engaged appropriately, we feel, over an extended period of time. And here we are today.'
Construction is set to begin this month, and Kaskitêw Asiskî is expected to be ready for residents to move into in 2027.