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Chinook’s Edge School Division is in the process of actively decommissioning the former Olds High School on Highway 27.

The property north of Highway 27 has already been listed and Chinook’s Edge hopes to list the property south of Highway 27 later this spring.

Jim Gibbons, superintendent for CESD, said the property on which the school building sits will be listed as soon as surplus equipment and furnishings are disposed of. Principals from other schools in the division will be claiming surplus equipment before the division opens the process shortly to the public, through a garage sale or auction. Maintenance staff from the division will also be saving any millwork that can be used at other schools.

"We’re in the process of listing that property and getting it rezoned to highway commercial," he said, adding that the property where the old field was, north of Highway 27, has already been listed and the division is in the process of getting that re-zoned from school reserve to residential. Gibbons said depending on how fast each of the properties sell, the division could rezone the properties so that any potential buyers wouldn’t have to go through that process after buying the properties. Gibbons said he hoped the south property could be listed later this spring.

Gibbons said while rezoning can take place at any point, he thought it might be easier if the division were to go ahead and do that, saving any potential owner the time it would take to go through the process. He said if the properties sell quickly, the buyer could apply for rezoning once the sale has been completed.

No applications to rezone the properties have been submitted yet.

Mayor Judy Dahl said the town is awaiting a sale on the properties before it gets involved. After a sale has been completed, the town would work with the new owner to redevelop the properties, she said.

"We don’t have any reason to discuss that until an offer comes to the Chinook’s Edge School Division and when the offer comes through to the (division), then that’s where our role comes in," she said.

Dahl said the town doesn’t have a preference as to what the land would be used for.

"We leave our door open. If Chinook’s Edge is fortunate enough to get somebody that has a plan that they’d like to present, then we ... are more than happy to discuss that with them."

Trent Bancarz, a spokesman with Alberta Transportation, said tentative plans have been drawn up to change traffic patterns on Highway 27 near 52 Avenue. Much of the plans, however, depend on what will happen with the two properties.

"We do have some access management plans where some of the pedestrian lights would be removed and there may be some access closures (onto Highway 27) and some reconfigurations of intersections. So there’s not really any firm decisions about anything as of yet," he said.

Any changes that are made to traffic patterns in the area would be funded by Alberta Transportation, with town staff doing the work, Bancarz said. Gibbons said the board has committed $2.5 million from the sale of the properties to the Community Learning Campus. Currently, the division is carrying those costs forward until the properties sell, at which point the funds would be put toward the CLC.

"We do hope they sell soon. They are desirable properties as far as three or four acres right in the middle of a town," he said.