Board delays sale of Linden Park school so city can mull site options

Hamilton’s public school board is holding off on selling the former Linden Park elementary school on the open market to give the incoming city council more time to make an offer.

Board chair Todd White said trustees agreed to extend the deadline until the end of February at the request of the Central Mountain’s interim councillor, Terry Anderson, appointed to fill in for Tory MPP Donna Skelly till the Oct. 22 municipal election.

Anderson convinced councillors in September to not act on a subcommittee’s recommendation against the city’s buying the school. He recommended consultation with the neighbourhood.

White said an original Dec. 18 deadline for submitting an offer for the 1.8-hectare property left little time for Anderson’s replacement to sound out constituents because the new council doesn’t take office until Dec. 1.

“We always want school board property to remain in public hands,” White said.

He said the extension doesn’t mean the city will buy Linden Park — closed in June 2015 following an accommodation review — but allows that option.

Anderson called the deadline extension “great news” and said he’s received at least a dozen calls from people concerned a private buyer will build homes on the property, severed from the neighbouring Hill Park Learning Centre lands to make way for its sale.

Although the decision will be up to the new councillor, the property could potentially provide a kids’ play area to replace one by the Sackville Seniors Centre, which will likely expand there at some point, he said.