Company offers more land for school
By Ruth Marlow
A land development company has given the Clarke school board permission to conduct studies on additional acreage fronting on Business Route 7 in Berryville for use as a potential high school site.
In a Feb. 27 letter, the Ketoctin Land Company gave the board a revised sketch plan for 60 acres in Battlefield Estates. The letter describes the tract as being L-shaped and fronting 2,400 feet on Main Street, with the long portion of the “L” running from the intersection at Westwood Road north for 2,000 feet, including Coleman’s Lane, to the Route 7 Bypass.
Initially the company had offered 40 acres of undeveloped land in the subdivision, which the board has asked an engineering firm to evaluate, along with three other possible sites: 40 acres owned by Berryville resident Beverley Byrd across from the existing high school on Westwood Road; 71 acres belonging to the Salvation Army just south of the high school; and undeveloped land just behind the school.
“The addition of 20 acres to the Ketoctin site will give room for expansion or an 800-student elementary school in the future,” stated the letter, which was signed by company president and Berryville resident Alton Echols.
“At this point, we’ll look at anything and everything,” said School Board Chairman Robina Rich Bouffault.
“Until such time as we get our test results in and the site feasibility studies are done, we will not be making any firm decision on any specific site. We’re going to be doing testing in the area where we think that a footprint of a school could go on all three sites.”
The 60-acre site would eliminate up to 94 dwelling unit rights, the land company’s letter notes, thereby reducing the school population and, as a result, future education costs.
According to the letter, the Main Street frontage would help reduce traffic congestion on Westwood Road. Calling the land “a great location,” the letter notes that the site would be within walking distance of downtown, parks and recreation facilities, and other schools and subdivisions.
On-site improvements are already in place, the letter notes, and include water and sanitary sewer lines, a sediment pond designed for conversion as a future detention pond, and public utilities such as electric, phone, gas, cable, and FIOS.
In addition, Echols said, the site offers additional sewer capacity for the town.
“This will give enough sewer capacity for 60 or more senior (housing) units, which is very important,” Echols said in an interview.
It also would provide additional tax revenue for the town, he added. Over a period of several years, an estimated $9 million in senior housing construction would help cover the cost of that sewer service because the senior homeowners would be paying water and sewer availability fees and the rate of operation of the system, he said.
“So it’s good economic development; it makes sense all the way around,” Echols said.
The cost of developing the site, the letter states, “will be substantially below any other site under consideration, especially the Salvation Army's 71 acres or the site behind the current high school, which requires expensive on- and off-site improvements before construction could start on a new high school.”
Contact the reporter at rmarlow@timespapers.com