Sir Sanford Fleming Parking Easement By-law
Motion 3 · Facilities Planning Committee, April 8, 2026
Summary
- Grants a parking access easement to the tenant of the leased south parcel at Sir Sanford Fleming Elementary, allowing shared vehicle entry through the school staff parking lot for the planned six-storey residential/commercial building's below-grade parkade.
- No compensation to the board; the 99-year ground lease signed in 2024 contemplated that such access rights would be provided at no additional cost.
- Consolidated single entry point was presented as a safety improvement, reducing the number of sidewalk crossings and improving vehicle sightlines compared to a direct street-facing parkade exit.
- Trustee raised concern about interactions between building tenants and school staff in shared parking area; staff noted the easement agreement governs permitted uses and that operational safety plans will address site-specific conditions.
- Trustee also raised pedestrian and child safety at the shared entry; staff explained the design mitigates blind-spot risks better than a zero-lot-line alternative.
- By-law to be given three readings and formally adopted at the April 29, 2026 public board meeting.
Vote
Opposed 1
Public comments
Read all 3 statements
Transcript
1 segments
DIRECTOR RIVERA- Okay seeing no further questions we'll move to the recommendation which will go to the board for April 29th 2026 board meeting and the recommendation reads that the Board of Education of School District Number 39 Vancouver serves Sanford Fleming Elementary School parking access easement by law 2026 be given three readings passed and adopted at the April 29, 2026 public board meeting. Looking at the committee members for the board. Okay. So we have trustee Young in favor and trustee Richardson in favor and Epstein. DIRECTOR RIVERA- Not in favor. Okay. And myself in favor. So this will go to the board with the recommendations from the facility planning committee in support of this motion. Okay next since there are no items for discussion we will move to section 3 information items and I will ask Jessie again sorry to present this item 3.1 new elementary school at Olympic Village update.
Statement Watch
Thank you Jesse. Is there any questions? Carl.
Thank you. I just had a question around so currently my understanding is there is parking lot at the back of the property behind the field and the assumption is there is laneway or there's access off of whatever the street is there. This split that entrance into two entrances, one for the tenants of the building to drive down into their parking, or would this make a combined access point for both in which people would be driving in and going down?
So this would create a combined access point and what the city always requests of adjacent developments is that we they minimize the number of crosswalk. crossings and so vehicles whether entering our parking lot or the parkade of the new building will come across the sidewalk in one location and then divide continuing to either our parking lot or down into the sub grade of the building okay so the follow-up then and i guess this is not for jesse but for another level up i suppose so what are are we
I believe this is not a common thing for us to have. So how are we going to deal with interactions between members of the tenants and our staff in interactions that occur in that parking area. Like how are we going to protect our members from something that happens a person walking from their car and someone who is not an employee of the board whatsoever who is actually a tenant of a building that we theoretically lease to having some kind of interaction whether it's hopefully not physical but some type of interaction what's the procedure going to be to protect members thank you
I can start that perhaps so that easement agreement does set out the nature of which that space can be utilized by the tenant and so it does require them to maintain it and you know adequate care to be using it only for approved uses. But you know any interactions with members of our staff on our lands with the public would be similar in which that is an operational. on us to ensure that safeguards are in place.
Statement Watch
Thank you. So Sir Sanford Fleming Elementary School is located at West 49th and Knight Street. In May 2021, the board declared the South portion of the school property as surplus. In November 2024, a 99 year ground lease was finalized on the South parcel. A six story rental residential building has now been approved on this leased property. The lease requires the board to grant licenses and other rights reasonably requested by the tenant at no additional cost to the board to enable the development. Vehicle access is required for the planned six-story building. The red area shown is the access location on the VSV parking lot that will provide access to the buildings below grade parking. Shared access through the Fleming School staff parking lot will limit vehicle crossing points on the sidewalk and reduce potential conflict points. There will be no loss of staff parking and this prevents unauthorized use of the staff parking area. This also allows for a continuous commercial street frontage consistent with good urban design principles. An easement agreement is required to grant the legal right for shared access. The lease requires the board to endeavor to grant licenses and other rights reasonably requested by the tenant, and these rights would be at no additional compensation to the board. Section 3.1.2 of the board bylaw 20 requires that the board pass a bylaw authorizing the parking access easement agreement before the VSP grants such rights to the tenant.
Statement Watch
We'll get Flavia to answer on this, please.
So this is a situation that we have addressed throughout the district. As the chairperson of the board stated and the superintendent, this is nothing new. We have shared sites with the city and other organizations throughout our school district. Specific policies and procedures apply to our safe operation of schools. We do have safety plans in place at each school that guide the work of teachers and how we expect teachers to report to the office or anywhere else. The same procedures will apply to this site. Anything that is unique to this site, as we bring the site into operations, we will create specific site specific plans that will ensure the safety and also ensure that of everybody that works or attends that school and also will ensure that everybody is fully knowledgeable on what the requirements are and what the expectations are and what like who is responsible for different activities that may occur on school grounds or on city grounds or like if and if a field trip a walking field trip form is required because Maybe they want to take a longer trip than what is considered regular in that area. Then that is going to be communicated to the teachers and the principals and everybody will be in the know as the school becomes operational.