Skip to content

Want to rent your grade-school classroom as an apartment?

A plan to convert the former Ste. Jeanne D'Arc and Cardinal Leger elementary schools into as many as 20 apartments appears to be shaping into a schoolyard squabble at next week's city council meeting.

A plan to convert the former Ste. Jeanne D'Arc and Cardinal Leger elementary schools into as many as 20 apartments appears to be shaping into a schoolyard squabble at next week's city council meeting.

Paul Finck, who bought the surplus school board property two years ago, is asking the city to rezone it to allow the conversion, and also to authorize rental of the school gymnasium to sports clubs and cultural organizations.

Neighbours are opposing the development, raising concerns about the management of another of Finck's apartment conversions, the former Norwest Motel, now referred to as Midtown Residential.

Finck is already renting the Rankin Road gym to Steel City MMA, which bills itself as "Sault Ste. Marie's top training center for MMA [mixed martial arts], jiu jitsu, kickboxing and wrestling."

City building officials consider that six-days-a-week use to be illegal and say they've sent Finck a letter instructing him to stop renting to Steel City MMA.

The city's engineering and planning staff is nonetheless recommending that councillors approve zoning for Finck's plan, including 25 parking spaces for the apartments and 19 spaces for the gymnasium.

"It is planning staff's opinion that permitting the gym to be rented to sporting and cultural groups will contribute to the completeness of the neighbourhood without deprecating it or affecting the residential environments," said Peter Tonazzo, a city planner, in a report  to Mayor Provenzano and city councillors.

"The one-storey building fits into the overall character of the area in terms of height and mass," Tonazzo said.

The former school is located at one end of Rankin Road, nestled between Église de Sainte-Marie-du-Sault on Trunk Road and the East Side Church of Christ on Melville Road.

City officials say that Finck has made few changes to the property since acquiring it.

But Bruce Tomlinson of nearby Robin Street, says "there appeared to have been extensive demolition occurring inside the building last year."

"Large dumpster containers were placed on site and there did not seem to be any hazardous materials protocols in place," Tomlinson said in a letter to the city.

He's asking building officials to confirm that they issued a permit for the work.

"My concern is that given the age of the building, it is reasonable to believe there was the possibility of the presence of asbestos, PCB (from transformers), abandoned or unused fuel tanks (heating system) and other regulated materials," Tomlinson said.

City staff say Finck is not planning to change either the footprint or the building's existing height.

Most of the apartments are expected to have two bedrooms although some will have a single bedroom.

The number of bedrooms will largely be determined by the Ontario Building Code, which requires that every bedroom have a window.

The city is asking Finck to provide a turnaround for snow plows at the end of Rankin Road.

On Rankin Road, neighbours Derek and Barbara Boyling warn that their two-block-long street has ditches and culverts, but no sidewalks or curbs.

"It is our understanding that the zone change will bring more people into the neighbourhood and most likely force property values down while increasing traffic, noise and possibly crime," the Boyles said in a letter to the city.

"A big concern for us and many of our neighbours is that with an apartment housing complex pretty much in our back yard, it will no longer be a quiet, low-traffic area to live in," said Jeff and Kyleigh Maille on nearby Melville Road.

Lynn and Anton Pecjak on Robin Street also oppose the apartment conversion, concerned that the units will be marketed to low-income and  transient workers who "would be a detriment to a well-established older residential area."

The issue was on the agenda at last week's city council meeting, but Ward 1 Councillors Steve Butland and Paul Christian succeeded in getting it postponed until next Monday's meeting, concerned that Finck had not appeared at two public meetings and a meeting between him and neighbourhood residents was needed to resolve unanswered questions.

"I don't see the people in that community, in that area, being very receptive to anything that we're going to do on that property," said Tammy Stoneman, who described her relationship to Finck: "I work with Paul. We live together. We're a family."

Reached by SooToday last night, Brent Fryia of Steel City MMA said: "This is the first I have heard of this. I have a month-to-month lease agreement with Paul and assumed in leasing it to us he had the proper paperwork and zoning approved as the owner of the building."

"Paul has not mentioned the plans for the building, has not said that we may have to leave and has not mentioned that he does not have proper zoning to rent it out for commercial business," Fryia said.

Monday's city council meeting will be streamed live by Local2.ca.


What's next?


If you would like to apply to become a Verified reader Verified Commenter, please fill out this form.




David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
Read more