An online petition includes more than 400 names of people who would like to keep a school site in Silver Valley.

Of four school sites in the north Maple Ridge neighbourhood, the one on 136th Avenue might be removed for the Official Community Plan.

Maple Ridge council voted two weeks ago to take the issue to a public hearing.

Councillors Corisa Bell, Bob Masse, and Cheryl Ashlie voted against removing the designation. A public hearing will be held later on the rezoning.

The school district provided a question-and-answer sheet on the Silver Valley school site issues, and, in it, pointed out that it's unlikely a school would be approved for the site by the Ministry of Education for several years because of the "excess capacity in schools that are relatively close to" Silver Valley.

Recently, a school site on 112th Avenue and 241st Street in Albion had its designation removed.

Of the school sites in the OCP, the school district felt the one on Fern Crescent was the most "centrally accessible" to all of Silver Valley.

mrantanen@mrtimes.com