Garden City surveys village's recreation needs, uses for historic St. Paul's School building

Garden City is conducting a survey to determine what kinds of recreational facilities and programs residents would prefer in the village as part of a larger effort to develop uses for the Gothic St. Paul's School building, officials said.

The survey will be used to create a recreation and parks master plan for the 19th century building, which has been closed since 1991, according to village officials. After the survey is completed, the village said it plans to mail a second one specifically relating to possible renovations or developments for the closed school building.

Kansas-based ETC Institute, a market research firm, last month mailed the recreation survey to 2,000 residents on behalf of the village to gauge their priorities. An online version of the survey includes questions about parks they have visited, upgrades or amenities they would want added to the parks, and kinds of programs or activities they engage in at the parks. 

The village board hired Kentucky-based consultant Brandstetter Carroll Inc. for $159,000 at its March 7 meeting to craft a recreation and parks plan as well as a plan for St. Paul's, village meeting records show.

John Bucher, a senior planner at Brandstetter Carroll, said in a June 6 presentation to the village board that residents haven't been given a deadline for the survey to be mailed back but they'd keep it open until 400 responses have been returned. 

Questions in a draft version of the second survey for St. Paul's included in materials posted on the village website for its June 20 meeting include what kinds of preservation or new construction residents would want to see on the existing property — including the possibility of demolishing the building and constructing a community center, and how much of a property tax increase residents would support. 

Village Mayor Mary Carter Flanagan announced on the village website on July 10 that the St. Paul's survey would be delayed. On Tuesday, Flanagan said the survey questions are being revised.

"We're working on it," she said, adding there are now two drafts and the final survey language will go to the board of trustees for approval at a date to be determined. 

Some village trustees raised objections to the draft St. Paul's survey at the June 20 meeting, calling for more detailed uses of the building to be included in the survey. Trustees also questioned why residents were being asked again about the possibility of demolition after a village poll in October showed a majority of respondents favored preserving the building.

St. Paul’s School was built in the High Victorian Gothic style between 1879 and 1883, according to the village website. It operated as an Episcopal school until it closed in 1991 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, according to the village website.

The village bought the property in 1993 — which includes fields and smaller buildings — and the issue of what to do with the property has bedeviled village residents and officials ever since.

Lingering disagreements over whether to preserve or demolish the building were apparent at a May 13 open house run by Brandstetter Carroll.

A Zoom presentation about the open house at the June 6 village trustee meeting showed comments written on forms that advocate demolishing the building and replacing it with a "new park with community center” while others favor preservation, saying "the facade, property, parkland, is a part of our history."