WINNIPEG (CBC) - More than 100 residents of Winnipeg's Armstrong Point neighbourhood attended a city committee meeting Thursday, the final hearing in a battle over a controversial school expansion.

Westgate Mennonite Collegiate wants to renovate its existing building, demolish a neighbouring house and add classroom space and an atrium to its building, nestled for more than 40 years on a bend in the Assiniboine River among Armstrong Point's stately homes.

The private school also wants to relocate parking, create a circular drive for school buses and cars to queue, and landscape the grounds. The proposed development would increase the school area by nearly 15,600 square feet to just over 52,000 square feet.

Officials with the school told the city's appeal committee Thursday that if the expansion is allowed, they will cap the number of students at 375. The highest enrolment at the high school in the recent past was 320.

But Christine Common Singh, who opposes the expansion proposal, said the school has a history of making promises not to expand, then doing the opposite. The school, which offers a curriculum for Grades 7-12, has expanded twice before.

"[It's] an ever-increasing imposition on the quiet residential expectations of me and my neighbours," she said. "As one broken promise followed another, the relationship between the community and the school became increasingly distrustful and contentious."

'Divisive conflict'

The school says the proposed changes will enhance the aesthetics of the neighbourhood with more open green space in the front yard, and address parking and traffic complaints.

But some neighbours argue the expansion doesn't fit in with the neighbourhood's residential character, and say they are already forced to put up with traffic congestion as people drop off and pick up students, most of whom live outside the area.

Their city councillor, Jenny Gerbasi, agrees; she told the appeal committee that concerns about the school are common, and that the expansion would surely lead to higher enrolment, more traffic, and the loss of dozens of the area's mature trees due to construction.

Dozens of black-and-yellow signs opposing the expansion have sprung up on lawns in the area as city council dealt with the school's request. The city has already once denied the school permission for the expansion.

"I work in the area of conflict resolution and it's sad to see such a divisive conflict developing," said John Hutton, a parent of students at the school who lives nearby.

"There is a sense that somehow if the school wins, the neighbourhood loses. I would like to come forward and tell you I don't see that the neighbourhood is going to lose if this proposal is upheld."

The appeal committee will have the final say on the matter.

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