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No Comments [ Add Comment ]The park vs. the school
"You can't always get what you want/But if you try sometimes, you might find/You get what you need."
-- The Rolling Stones
While we're not in the habit of recommending that people take lots of advice from either Mick Jagger or Keith Richards, the lyrics by The Rolling Stones bad boys are appropriate for residents of southeast Ogden.
A group of neighbors there are attempting to stop construction of a new elementary school at 5025 S. 1500 East.
The piece of land was sold to the city by the Browning family in 1995. The hope was Ogden would build a park there, but the city's never had enough money to do that.
Now city is on board with the Ogden School District's plans to build an elementary and park on the ground, but residents would prefer the entire 9.6-acre parcel be a park. They've petitioned the district, but have been unsuccessful.
In July 2006 on this page, we urged the residents to view the plan for the school with a positive attitude. The choice really is to let the ground remain as it is -- undeveloped, due to lack of municipal funds -- or to have it become the site of a brand-new elementary school, with an adjoining park paid for by the district. The school and park will be good things for the neighborhood.
Neighbors are worried about increased traffic. True, there will be more cars and buses, but only during narrow windows of time in the morning and afternoon when school is in session. It's no different than the situation near dozens and dozens of other elementary and junior high school sites all over the Top of Utah.
The school will be a convenience for children who live in the neighborhood, as well.
The Ogden District's plan is for the elementary to be a "magnet" school -- it will have a strong emphasis in some particular subject area and provide a program or programs not available at other schools.
As we've noted before, having a high-quality school and park in the neighborhood will likely boost home prices and increase the quality of life for families who live there. This is a good thing for all of Ogden, and for the Browning Park neighborhood, as well.
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