ManitobaA pair of Waverley West residents have launched an appeal at city hall against a development they say “will disturb the peace and quiet” of their south Winnipeg residential neighbourhood: an elementary school and daycare.Appeal argues they will bring traffic and noise to their residential neighbourhoodBartley Kives · CBC News · Posted: Oct 02, 2025 7:27 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoTwo Waverley West residents have launched an appeal against something they say will disturb the peace of their neighbourhood: an elementary school and daycare slated for this land south of Landover Drive. (Bartley Kives/CBC News)A pair of Waverley West residents have launched an appeal at city hall against a development they say “will disturb the peace and quiet” of their south Winnipeg residential neighbourhood: an elementary school and daycare.Next week, city council’s appeals committee will consider an effort to oveturn a decision by planning director Hazel Borys to approve a Pembina Trails School Division K-8 school and daycare south of Landover Drive, straddling the edge of the Bridgwater Trails and Prairie Pointe neighbourhoods.In an appeal letter dated Sept. 18, appellants Mariana and Luis Rodriguez state the school and daycare would cause traffic congestion in their neighbourhood, create excess noise and reduce the availability of parking.”This will disturb the peace and quiet of the residential environment and diminish overall quality of life for current residents,” the appellants wrote. Mariana Rodriguez subsequently declined an interview request.Elected officials described the appeal as unusual, considering the high demand for schools in newer Winnipeg neighbourhoods.”Generally speaking, my experience is I have people coming to me asking for new schools, so this is a new experience for me,” Education Minister Tracy Schmidt said Thursday in an interview outside her office.The demand is particularly acute in Waverley West, where approximately 1,700 students in three of the area’s neighbourhoods — Bridgwater Lakes, Bridgwater Trails and Prairie Pointe — were forced to attend school outside of their immediate communities last year, Pembina Trails superintendent and CEO Shelley Amos said Thursday.”The new school is imperative as it will help address space challenges and allow children to attend a school in their own community, reducing the number of school buses operating in that area,” Amos said in a statement.Waverley West resident Dan Grossi says two of his kids are among those who have to travel outside their neighbourhoods to attend school. He said he drives them to Whyte Ridge, north of Waverley West, every morning.”We absolutely need schools,” Grossi said Thursday as he was walking his dog past the appeal notice pounded into the proposed school site along Landover Drive.”There’s a school in South Pointe. We’re not in their catchment. There’s a school in Bison Run. We’re not in their catchment. I have to send my kids to Whyte Ridge, but there’s not enough daycare spots.”We have schools right in the area. It would be nice to just go to school in the area.”Site approved as school location 11 years agoThe placement of the school and daycare on Landover Road is not a new development.The site was identified for this use in planning documents approved by the City of Winnipeg in 2012, says Jeff Pratte, a senior planner and partner at Landmark Planning, which designed the project on behalf of the school division.The street connections and drop-off and pick-up areas are being designed to accommodate cars, buses and people who visit by bicycle and on foot, he says.”We have reviewed the grounds for appeal and are highly confident that all the issues raised by the appellant are being addressed by the project team,” Pratte said in a statement.Coun. Janice Lukes (Waverley West) says while schools do result in traffic, people who move to new neighbourhoods must do their homework.”Maybe the individual didn’t think that a school was going in, or wasn’t aware of what might be going in, but he has or she has the opportunity to come down and appeal it,” Lukes said Thursday outside city hall.The appeal against the school and daycare will be considered Oct. 8.Residential neighbourhood no place for elementary school, residents argueThree Waverley West residents have launched an appeal against a City of Winnipeg decision to approve a K-8 school and daycare. ABOUT THE AUTHORBartley Kives joined CBC Manitoba in 2016. Prior to that, he spent three years at the Winnipeg Sun and then 18 at the Winnipeg Free Press, writing about politics, music, food and outdoor recreation. He’s the author of three books – two of them Canadian bestsellers – and the winner of a Canadian Screen Award for reporting.
Waverley West duo asks city to nix new K-8 school, claiming it will disturb peace, quiet
