Sherwood Park residents campaigning against non-profit's new youth facility

BGC Strathcona County is looking to expand and build a new state-of-the-art facility in Sherwood Park, but some who live near the proposed site are against the idea.

The non-profit, formerly known as Boys and Girls Club,caters to about2,000 children and youth each year with their after-school programs, drop-in programs, summer camps, art and nature programs.

The organization still has 800 kids on its wait-list. To help reduce that number and centralize, the group has chosen a wooded site beside Brentwood Elementary and proposes to build a two-storey, net-zero building with a geothermal system and solar panels.

Butsome residents are pushing back.

"I don't want it in my front yard," said Jessica Mcneal, who lives near the proposed site.

She is one of the more than 600 local residents who signed a petition against the project, earlier this year.

Traffic and safety concerns

Traffic is already a problem most school mornings,said Mcneal and she worries this new facility will make it much worse.

"I feel like we're constantly just getting crushed out of our neighbourhood with this whole program going through."

Some residents have also raisedsafety concerns.

"I've seen kids come literally to the point where they bounce off the car because they're running across as the car is coming down the road," said local resident Perry Gould, who also owns several properties in the neighbourhood.

"There's just no availability for added traffic."

A GoFundMe has raised more than $7,000 in donations from across Canada to hire a lawyer to fight the project.

"My kids have been in that program. I love it. I love the staff there," said Mcneal.

"It's absolutely astronomical, what they do for people in the community."

If the project goes forward, both Mcneal and Gould said they would move.

But, not all residents in Sherwood Park oppose the project.

Multiple parentsvoiced support for the new build at a 13-hour council meeting in February, saying the club's programing had been invaluable to their children and would like to see it expanded.

Why Brentwood?

Last year, the federal government announced the Green and Inclusive Community Buildings program. If approved, the grantwould cover 60 per cent of construction costs for the new BGC building, estimated to be $10 million.

To apply, BGC Strathcona County needed a site ready andsettled the site in theBrentwoodneighbourhood because the land could be donated by the county and the location is nearplaygrounds, parks, sports fields, transit and walking paths.

"We truly believe that the new building will have a net positive impact on the community as a whole and we're really committed to being a good neighbour," said Alison Ottewell, president of the board for BGC Strathcona County.

Pushback from local residents is not surprising, said Rod Frank, mayor of Strathcona County.

"People take a real interest in their neighbourhoods. Many have been there for a long time," he said.

"We've seen this before and we understand."

There are few other options in the community, where the county could donate the land for the project, said Frank.

BGC Strathcona County expects to hear if it gets the grant by the end of the year. If successful, it will move to the next planning and development stage. If unsuccessful. Ottewell said, it will be much more difficult to finance the project.

"We again are going to have to continue adding to our ever-growing wait-list for children and youth."