Neighbours of Breslau park unhappy with plans for new school

Breslau Memorial Park is seen from a neighbouring backyard on Friday, Feb. 6, 2015. (Alexandra Pinto / CTV Kitchener)

You don’t have to go far to find opposition to plans to build a Catholic school and library on parkland in Breslau.

In fact, you barely have to pass the park’s boundaries.

“It’s just a nice area of land, and … we don’t want it to change,” Ryan Bender, whose home backs onto Breslau Memorial Park, told CTV News.

Woolwich Township and the Waterloo Catholic District School Board have suggested a partnership to build a school in the park, as well as a new library for the community.

If approved, the new school would be two storeys high and hold 250 students.

It would also be something Bender didn’t expect one bit when he bought his home in 2011.

At the time, he liked the view of the park, as well as being so close to so much open space for his two dogs.

“We use that field constantly,” he said.

“If you choose to buy a home that backs onto a school, you already know what you’re expecting. I didn’t choose to buy a home that backs onto a school.”

A petition asking for the school not to be built had garnered more than 100 signatures by Friday afternoon, including that of Lindsay Murray – who, like Bender, had bought a home expecting to back onto a park.

Murray homeschools her children, and worries that programming at the park’s existing community centre could be lost if a school was built – as well as public privileges on the playground.

“If (we) can’t go beyond our gate because it’s now school property … that completely changes my daytime plans,” she said.

Woolwich Township Mayor Sandy Shantz calls the partnership “a really great opportunity” for the township, as the proceeds from the sale of land for the school will be used to make improvements to the rest of the park – although no deal has been made, and it’s possible no changes will be made to the park.

“We want to hear what their concerns are, and we want to see if we can address the concerns,” Shantz said.

Some of that feedback will be gathered at a Feb. 26 public meeting, held at the Breslau Community Centre.

The proposed school would take up about two per cent of the total parkland, Shantz said.

One way or another, a new school is coming to Breslau.

Catholic trustees made that clear in 2013, when they voted to close St. Boniface Catholic Elementary School in Maryhill and replace it with a new school to the south.