Owen Sound and The Bruce Grey Catholic School Board are moving into a full-blown Conservation review hearing over the issue of saving the old portion of St. Mary’s High School.
A pre-hearing was held in February, but Councillor, and Chair of the Planning advisory committee, Deb Haswell says a second pre-hearing on the phone has been cancelled.
Haswell says the board decided to skip that part of the process and asked the Province’s Conservation Review board to schedule a hearing for June 15th and 16th.
Owen Sound is looking at designating the 1891 portion of the high school as a heritage property, but the school board wants to demolish it.
The Catholic Board is getting 3.7 million dollars for a new addition to the school, and argue there is no money for renovating and salvaging the old section.
Haswell admits even in the Catholic community, there seems to be little support for a heritage designation.
She doesn’t know if the Review committee will make a recommendation to city council at the end of the two day session, or hand down it’s recommendation later.
The city is moving to save the 1891 portion of the building, and has gone thru the first step with the Heritage Conservation review board at Queens Park.