© Ashley Fraser The French Catholic School Board has proposed a giant sports dome in Orleans and the local residents are taking a stand against it.

What’s going on in today’s schoolyard? A new kind of hijinks, about seven storeys tall.

If all goes according to plan, Katherine and Mark MacKay may soon look out their second-floor window on Montcerf Court in Orléans and see — not the two ball diamonds they’ve viewed for 26 years — but something quite different.

“It’ll be like living beside an airplane hangar,” says Mark.

The French-language Catholic school board in the area is proposing to build a year-round sports dome beside Garneau, one of its high schools in the Chateauneuf area. It is no small thing: 76 by 144 metres — an indoor football field — with a ceiling that peaks at 23.5 metres.

The proposal underlines a policy shift in how school boards use their properties — as real estate assets that can be leveraged for commercial and community use.

The school board, the Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est, gave a presentation about the dome to a community meeting on Nov. 14 to a skeptical neighbourhood that had already done its homework.

© Ashley Fraser The French Catholic school board has proposed a giant sports dome in Orleans.

The Chateauneuf Community Association pointed out that this dome would be plopped into a mature suburban community of mostly single-family houses, coming as close as 14 metres to their backyards.

This is much closer, their research discovered, than other sports domes across the city, which are often beside commercial areas or tucked behind banks of trees.

Association president Pat Teolis said Sunday that residents have several concerns about the dome, which is expected to cost about $6 million, an amount that might be shared with a private-sector partner.

Not only is there not sufficient buffer between adjacent homes, he said, but the community is concerned about drainage, noise, night lighting, extra parking and wind effects.

“We’re not opposed to a dome and we’d like to help them find a suitable spot,” said Teolis. “This isn’t it.”

MacKay, meanwhile, not only worries about the visual effect but also the impact on property values. There were theories floating around the community meeting that the negative drag on house values could be 20 per cent or higher.

Alain Johnson lives closest to the proposed dome, about 14 metres away, calling it a “white wall” that will loom over his property, day and night.

“I’m scared that it’s already a fait accompli,” he said, adding he’s spent $100,000 renovating his home during the last five years, an investment he fears is imperilled. “It’s three times the size of my house. You can imagine how imposing that will be.”

He’s gathered more than 200 names on a petition opposing the dome and says 95 per cent of his neighbours have supported him.

“There are better places than this for a sports dome.”

© Ashley Fraser The French Catholic school board has proposed a giant sports dome in Orleans and the local residents are taking a stand against it.

Ted Gruszecki, a resident of the area for about 30 years, backs onto the green space, which he says is used by softball players, dog walkers and even kids flying kites.

“This is a large and imposing structure.” He has visited at least three other domes across the city and inspected the size and noise that emanates from the pneumatic machinery that keeps the domes inflated. He’s yet to find one so close to people’s backyards.

He’s curious about the financials involved, too, saying the school board refused to reveal who the private-sector partner was and what commercial arrangements are being discussed. Does the private partner benefit from tax exempt status, he wondered, and profit from a site for which the public has paid?

The school board’s director of education, Réjean Sirois, could not provide comment by deadline.

Indeed, the French Catholic board in the west end just opened a “Megadome” beside Paul Desmarais High School in Stittsville. It is a partnership with the Ottawa Sooners football club. While the dome allows the school to expand its sports-study program, it also has room for community use as well.

On the English side, Immaculata High School in Old Ottawa East found itself in a controversy after news broke about a $2-million deal to build a lighted artificial field off Main Street, to be handed over for evening use to a private soccer club. The use of lights on the field was such a sore point that it was appealed to a planning tribunal.

So you do wonder where it is all headed. There are hundreds of schools in the Ottawa area, with a massive real estate footprint. We know, too, that specialty-sports programs in secondary schools are on the rise, with a need for more indoor space during the winter months and school boards competing for students.

The board hopes to open the dome by the spring of 2021 but needs a zoning change for which it has yet applied.

So, domes away? The lesson from Garneau, surely, is that we best be careful.

To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com