The future of a former school in North Vancouver is in question, following the collapse of part of its roof.
The site at Hamilton Avenue and 21st Street was once Hamilton Junior High School before hosting a variety of educational programs.
But it’s sat virtually empty for a decade, and in late June the gym roof gave way.
“The gym was still in good shape, the floor was still in good shape, they let the roof leak and destroyed the floor and now the roof has collapsed,” said Tom Wright with the Hamilton Heights Neighbourhood Association.
“They are not maintaining the property at all … It’s such a tremendous waste, and all they had to do was fix the damned roof.”
About 10 years ago, residents in the area were presented with a variety of potential plans to develop the site, including proposals for apartments and townhouses.
It’s a prospect neighbours aren’t keen on.
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“Most are opposed to anything like condos or high rises or anything like that … the longer it stays vacant the better,” resident Mike Smith told Global News.
“Traffic is already pretty bad in here, getting in and out is way bad today with all the roadwork. There’s only two ways in and out of the neighbourhood,” added Wright.
Linda Munro, chair of the North Vancouver School District, said crews have been on site to assess the property and will have a budget and plan for demolition complete by July 12.
As for the future of the site, she said there are no official plans, but the hope is to keep it for district use.
“We look forward to in the future using it to accommodate the growing needs of our school district and growing student population,” she said.
“It’s a golden property, and we want to make a careful decision with it — at the same time, funding is limited, what we receive from the provincial government and we need to be making careful decisions in each budget year as to what we put funding towards.”
Munro added that the district had asked for money in this year’s budget to demolish the building, but was denied the funding.
In the meantime, the large site remains essentially vacant, boarded up and surrounded by fencing. A portion of the building that was unaffected by the collapse remains in use by school district operations and maintenance crews.
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