School Board delays decision to select land for new Polk County high school

What started as a Polk County Public Schools work session item in July to buy land along Lake Hatchineha Road for a school, has mushroomed into six more potential properties to choose from.

All of the properties and the process for identifying the ultimate location for a new high school in the northeastern region of the county was discussed first during Tuesday’s work session and members of the group Residents Against Development of Hatchineha Road chimed in during the public comment portion of the meeting.

No votes were taken on a site selection, but several board members wanted the school district’s attorney to prepare a presentation on the district’s commitments in the interlocal government agreement and clarification on the impact fees associated with the site selection process.

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The district is dealing with overcrowding at the Haines City High School

The district is dealing with overcrowding at the Haines City High School and a new school would help alleviate capacity problems as well as rising enrollment projections in the area.

Much of the thousands of acres of land along Lake Hatchineha Road has escaped development, including a proposal for single family homes dating back to 2006. In addition, there is Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area to the north, the Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Preserve State Park to the west, and Lake Kissimmee State Park to the south. Across from Lake Hatchineha is the Disney Wilderness Preserve.

The initial property discussed Tuesday was the Baxter property, which had first surfaced at the board's July 26 work session. The property is on the former Asana Ranch land, which is listed in county property records as owned by Creek Ranch LLC.

In April, Center State Development bought the 1,400-acre Creek Ranch on Lake Hatchineha for $12.44 million. The ranch served as a buffer between Port Hatchineha and the development to the west. Center State plans to use 700 acres for wetland mitigation, sell 100 acres to Polk Schools and use 550 acres for 1,920 homes.

The Baxter property also appeared on the Sept. 6 board meeting agenda but was pulled and a vote delayed after the school board received an unsolicited offer for another property, which led the board to direct district staff to evaluate other sites.

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Prior to Tuesday's session, Reggie Baxter had sweetened the deal for a school on the property by offering the school district the land as a donation, which was detailed in documents initially posted but now removed from the district's website.

The land donation, valued at $8.7 million, would need to be used for substantial construction within three years or the land would revert back to the owner, the district report said. The district would also be responsible for site preparations, infrastructure improvements and connecting the site to local utilities.

In an earlier deal the district would have received the land valued at $12 million with Baxter's group doing mitigation and other site preparations by paying the $8.7 million.

Baxter would obtain the needed land use changes and zoning for the property for building a school in the donation eventually goes through. He had offered to pay all associated costs for those applications. The district could own the land within 10 days after the zoning change is finalized.

The unsolicited proposal that derailed the Baxter's initial offer came from Building Tomorrow's Schools Polk Marigold Support LLC, which offered a 25-year, lease-to-own type of partnership that could cost the district approximately $115 million over time. The land for that proposal would be on the tract currently identified in the district staff report as the Bowen property.

In all, Josh McLemore, the district’s new senior coordinator of facilities and planning, identified five other properties for the School Board to consider, including the Dundee Reserve Holdings LLC, Jennings Road/Lesley, Lorenz, Smokey Groves/Grenelefe and Scenic Highway 100 properties.

The Baxter property includes 124.45 acres for a school with about 2,671 feet of frontage along Lake Hatchineha Road in unincorporated Polk County, McLemore said. While there are no utilities to the land presently, Osceola County-based TOHO Water Authority services the area and is extending its services to nearby Deer Lake subdivision at the intersection with Magnolia Road. Utilities could continue from Magnolia to the Creek Ranch land.

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Polk County is currently improving and widening Marigold Avenue, McLemore said. There is also a newly opened Polk County Fire Rescue Station 37 along Cypress Parkway in the Polk County’s section of Poinciana that recently opened, and a Sheriff’s Office substation is currently under construction next to it. Sidewalks will surround the Deer Lake subdivision and the Poinciana Community Park is on the opposite corner.

The Baxter property would require a zoning change to "institutional" from its current "agriculture rural residential" designation - a change permitted within the county’s comprehensive plan, McLemore said.

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A potential concern identified was traffic flow because of the plans for single family homes on the Baxter property as proposed by Center State Development.

Reggie Baxter who is a managing member of Center State with partner Robert J. Adams, formerly of Sun State Homes, declined to comment on the outcome of Tuesday’s session.

Even though Baxter had offered to donate the land for the school, a consensus of the school board decided to gather additional information before taking action. The agreement between Baxter and Polk Schools for the donation of the land had been posted on the district’s website prior to Tuesday's meetings but then taken down. 

Superintendent Frederick Heid said that he had met with the opposing RADHR group members who had expressed concerns that 21 engendered species of flora and fauna were living in the area and that should be a consideration for the school board as it decides on a site.

The RADHR group had also submitted potential additional school sites for the district to consider, Heid said.

The Bowen Brothers Inc. property is located at 0 Lake Hatchineha Road, according to property records. It is across the street from the Deer Lake subdivision and also needs utilities and a rezoning from the RDA to the institutional designation.

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Similar to many other proposed sites, the Bowen site may have wetlands and there is a documented threatened or endangered flora species in the area, McLemore said.

While School Board Member Lynn Wilson was serving in his last meeting on the panel, he said the district process for adding schools has not worked in the past and the Bowen model of providing capacity should be considered by his colleagues.

"What we do, in my opinion, hasn't worked for us," Wilson said. "And that is we buy a property and then we construct a building. As someone who had served on this board for eight years, this has not served us well, because what we are doing is we're building something that we are prescribing."

The district has been building "unique" or "custom" schools and that adds to price increases and change orders during construction that escalate the final cost, he said. The new model proposed by the Bowen group is something the state legislature wants districts to try moving forward.

"So we have a potential for a new model that is not unique," Wilson said. "We get out of the custom-building model that has not served us well and into a more competitive model. They are offering us land and a building at one price."

"The growth in this county, we are never going to meet it, if we don't find a different model," he added. "We're just kidding ourselves."

The Dundee Reserve property is 1,400 feet from Dundee Ridge Middle Schools. The land straddles both Polk County and area within the city limits. The property contains wetlands and is within a flood zone, the district report said, citing Southwest Florida Water Management District.

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The district concerns for this property is that it's proximity to the middle school, which could disrupt traffic flows and that only 76 acres are uplands and developable. Still, the site has existing utilities and its located just 2.4 miles from district-owned property along Scenic Highway about 2.4 miles to the south. The existing district-owned land was purchased for future elementary and high schools.

About 2.56 miles to the west of the Baxter and Bowen sites, two other properties represent another potential future school site for the district to buy. That site is identified as the Jennings Road-Lesley Property. 

The land fronts 667 feet along County Road 542 (Lake Hatchineha Road) and 2,660 feet along Jennings Road within unincorporated Polk County. It was not known if utilities were existing to the site, which is within the county’s East Regional Utility Service Area, the district report said.

The land would need a zoning change to allow a high school. Any of the sites needing a zoning change would need three to six months to get approval through the county process, McLemore said.

The 112-acre Lorenz property would be near the Aldi Distribution Center along Detour Road and bisected with 62 acres to the north and 50 acres to the south of White Clay Pit Road. The utilities hookups are unknown and within the county’s East Regional Utility Service Area. The property is within 2.5 miles of property already owned by the school district.

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The Smokey Groves property would have 84 acres of developable land for a high school. A portion of the land is zoned as a preserve. The district report cited concerns about the property including wetlands and flood zone areas of the property. The area is also part of a Utility Enclave Area, which could mean there is not sufficient capacity to support a school.

The district report said the Baxter land was the “best location for relief to Haines City High and accommodate growth.” The report recommended the school board accept the donated property, but the decision was delayed.

The RADHR group favors the Lorenz or the Smokey Grove properties for a new high school, and group leader Jeremy Knowles said during public comments that many of the site analysis presented by district staff were "full of inaccuracies and false information about several of the properties.”

“I plan to provide the correct information to the board members,” Knowles said by text after the meeting. “It seems they presented it in a fashion that was only favorable to the Baxter property, very one sided.”

Paul Nutcher can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk School Board delays decision on land for new high school