New homes built in the City of Kamloops in the next decade will help pay for land for new schools.

The Kamloops-Thompson School District has approved a new school site acquisition charge.

Board chair Rhonda Kershaw says that means a small fee for building new homes.

“So if a lot is developed, it’s like a development cost charge. So for a single-family home, it will be $288 dollars added to the cost of the lot. That then gets forwarded to the city, which then gets forwarded to the school district, and put into an account that we hold in trust for purchasing future school sites.”

Broken down, the fee is $288 for new single-family homes, $259 for low-density multi-family homes, like townhouses, and $201 high-density multi-family homes like condos.

Specifically, that money will be used to help the school district buy land in Aberdeen. The district says it needs 11 acres of land for a new high school and six acres for an elementary school, which will cost an estimated $7.28 million altogether.

“We would still have to have approval from the Ministry of Education to purchase a school site. Those funds would be given as a contribution,” Kershaw says.

She says the school district doesn’t have a set timeline for when it will buy the land for new schools in Aberdeen, saying it will happen when the new schools are approved as part of its capital plan. “So we could be looking at any time from next year to 10 years from now.”

In the summer, Kamloops council approved amendments in the Aberdeen neighbourhood plan for the new Edinburgh Heights neighbourhood, and part of the development will include land set aside for a new elementary school. The district and the city are still trying to pinpoint where to build a high school in Aberdeen.