Jasper Legion running out of ideas for former school
The Jasper Legion has applied for a demolition permit to tear down the space formerly used by Ècole Desrochers.
The application was submitted earlier this month by Ken Kuzminski, president of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 31. He said, after numerous discussions with Parks Canada about possible uses for the space, demolition is beginning to look like the last remaining option.
Currently the building, like most Legions in Canada, is zoned institutional. That limits what the space can be used for—and rezoning is out of the question as it would require an amendment to the Canada National Parks Act.
Discretionary uses for institutional lands include everything from community recreational facilities to childcare facilities, government services, medical treatment services, public assemblies, public education services, public libraries and cultural exhibits, public parking areas, religious assemblies, special needs housing, staff accommodation and utility services.
One of the suggested uses for the space was a transitional workers accommodation that would provide newcomers a place to lay their heads after arriving in Jasper. A proposal for the idea went to the Planning and Development Advisory Committee, which gave its conditional support.
That plan has since been abandoned because it wouldn’t be economically feasible with the number of beds that was approved for the space.
Since then, the Legion has been presented with a few other ideas, including a yoga studio and storage space, but both were denied on the grounds that they were too commercial.
“We’re still trying to work with the community to see what else we might be able to put in there,” said Kuzminski. “It’s a big, beautiful building that’s not that old and that the community raised a lot of money to build, but one of our options is to tear it down, or we could put a casino in there—we do have a gaming license.”
If the Legion is unable to find a use for the space, Kuzminski said it has to be demolished because the organization can’t afford the cost of heating and maintaining it.
“The Legion itself barely scrapes by and without the extra income the school brought in, we gotta cut corners wherever we can. So we might have to payout a little bit to tear down part of the building, but we’d probably make that back in a couple years worth of heat.”
Before moving out to join the Jasper Junior/Senior High School in the brand new joint school facility, Ècole Desrochers was paying about $100,000 a year to lease the space from the Legion.
Previous to that, the space was used as a games room and performance area.
The Jasper Legion was built in 1972. Twelve years later, an addition was built to allow for the games room, which had pool tables and an auditorium. In 2006, the addition became home to Ècole Desrochers.
Kuzminski said he hopes it doesn’t have to be torn down, but he admits that he’s at his wits’ end.
Cathy Jenkins, manager of municipal and reality services for Parks Canada, said she is open to working with the Legion.
“We would like to see them get something successful running in there and we’re doing the best that we can to assess whatever they bring to us.”
She encouraged the Legion executives to make a list of concrete ideas and to bring it to her.
“We’ll go over them and we will try and be as flexible as possible, within what’s set out in the zoning,” she said, noting that whatever is proposed will also have to go through the Planning and Development Advisory Committee.
If the Legion is unable to find a viable use for the space and it decides to demolish the building, a hazardous materials assessment will first have to be conducted before Parks issues a demolition permit.
Kuzminski, who as well as being the Legion president is a local contractor, said after that demolition would be fairly simple.
“Because it was built as an addition, we can just seal off the rest of the building and kind of go back to the way it was.”
Nicole Veerman
[email protected]
