Brad Clark said the government agency misled residents at last month’s open house by suggesting the high school may be jeopardized by changes to the city’s official plan that seek to preserve the karst’s feeder area, when in fact land is available elsewhere.

Plans for the Trinity West neighbourhood to the west of Upper Mount Albion Road allow for the school site, he said.

“They had parents up in arms, so the ORC was clearly playing games and ratcheting up tempers and anger by providing misinformation, and it’s something the Government of Ontario should never be allowing any provincial agency to do,” Mr. Clark said.

“The Catholic board is working directly with the city, and the city will move heaven and earth to assist the school board in getting their high school built as quickly as possible.”

Pat Daly, chair of Hamilton’s Catholic School board, said he’s not ruling out the possibility of building a new high school on the feeder lands, but three other sites are being pursued more aggressively.

A key consideration in the final choice will be the ability to begin building by 2011 because that’s a condition of the province’s funding grant for the school, he said.

The three other undisclosed sites include another provincial property managed by the ORC and two privately- owned ones.

Mr. Daly said the board is monitoring the debate over the karst feeder area and doesn’t want to become embroiled in a dispute given the pressing need for the school, which will be built to accommodate 1,200 to 1,500 students.

Catholic high school students in the area presently attend St. Jean de Brebeuf or Bishop Ryan.

The ORC is in the midst of completing an environmental study on the feeder area and has formally objected to the city’s official plan changes, but has ruled out, for now at least, an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board, saying it prefers to try to resolve the issues through discussions.

“We’re very aggressively moving ahead with looking at some other sites because clearly time is of the essence for us,” Mr. Daly said.

“It’s a real issue for us and obviously it’s something we want to see happen sooner rather than later, so that’s one of our very serious considerations in terms of the site,” he said.

“It would be premature for me to say that we’ve precluded any site, but at the same time, those sites that have the possibility of us proceeding earlier clearly at this point are our priority, and that would include the other ORC site and some privately-owned sites.”

A draft plan released by the ORC last month identified development as the preferred option for the feeder area, arguing this will bring “a balanced economic return” to taxpayers.

The ORC considered eight scenarios with more or less development, favouring one that provides a mix of single-family and town homes, the Catholic high school, and unspecified “residential/institutional” and mixed uses along Rymal Road that could include a retail component.

The preferred plan also includes a collector road, neighbourhood park, possible trail links to the karst park, a storm-water management area and buffer area by Phoenix Creek, which runs into the karst. Both city council and the Hamilton Conservation Authority’s board of directors want the feeder area preserved, arguing its water flows are crucial to the 73- hectare karst, a rare concentration of caves, sink holes, dry valleys and sinking streams. Mr. Clark said development will not just alter flows “dramatically,” but potentially increase contamination from road runoff.

“All of that is going to damage the ecosystem inside the caves and there has not been any biological inventory of life in the caves,” he said.