Belleville buys former Hillcrest Public School property

By Alex Mahar

BELLEVILLE –The vacant Hillcrest Public School property has officially been sold to the city of Belleville.

On Monday the the Hastings and Prince Edward District school board approved the sale for $800,000 to the city.

Hillcrest, which was closed by the local public school board at the end of the 2016-17 school year, is located east of Cannifton Road and north of College Street East.

What to do with the property is next on the agenda for the city of Belleville, according to Mayor Mitch Panciuk.

“There’s a lot of green space around the school,” Panciuk said. “It would be a great location for a public park or recreational facility. We also see at some point it being an excellent residential location.

“We are going to go through an extensive community consultation” about what to do with the property, Panciuk told QNet News Sunday. “We are going to ask people in the neighbourhood what they want. Maybe they want a playground, splash pad or tennis courts.”

Using the property for housing is also a possibility, he said.

The shortage of affordable housing has been a hot topic around the Belleville area for a couple of years now. The Hillcrest land could be extremely attractive for developers to turn into housing units, Panciuk said.

Belleville is not in the business of building subsidized housing, he said, explaining that the city deals with Hastings County for social housing and the private sector for affordable housing.

A plan developed at last spring’s housing summit aims to make properties like the Hillcrest one enticing for developers. That plan includes offering incentives to developers.

There are other vacant properties in Belleville that the city has expressed interest in. According to Panciuk, the city has looked into acquiring the former Quinte Secondary School property but talks are still in the early stages.