PHOENIXVILLE — Although a decision has not yet come down on
the emminent domain dispute between the Phoenixville Area School District and
Meadow Brook Golf Club, plans for the new school complex on the golf course
property continue to develop.
“Last Wednesday, we held the last design meeting for the
building,” said Phoenixville Executive Director of Operations Stan Johnson
Thursday. “We had administrators, office staff, nurses and secretaries trying
to figure out where we should put printers, copiers, where we can store files
(in the offices). We’re in it at that level of detail.”
The district has planned to build a combined earlier
learning center and elementary school since the spring of 2013, ultimately
deciding to acquire the Meadow Brook property for the project in the fall.
In Thursday’s Phoenixville Area School Board meeting, Board
Vice President Dan Cushing said that if the maximum amount of traffic
improvements and other work have to be done, the “all-in” figure the district
would pay for the entire project is estimated to be $80 million. Johnson told
The Mercury earlier in the day that his current best estimate for what the
project will actually entail ranges from $55 to $60 million.
“Everything is very preliminary,” Johnson said of the plans.
“We do not have final concepts yet.”
Some factors, such as road improvements PennDOT indicated it
will require, make numbers fluid and specific estimates for different pieces of
the project difficult to nail down, Johnson said.
In response to meeting or exceeding capacity in many of the district’s
elementary education buildings and enrollment projections continuing to rise,
Phoenixville hopes to retire both the kindergarten center and East Pikeland
Elementary School with the construction of a new combined building at Meadow
Brook.
Johnson said it’s estimated that the building, alone, is
projected to cost $45 million. It is planned to have capacity for 1,150
students.
As such, he estimates between $10 and $15 million will be
needed to construct the necessary parking lots for the school, as well as
complete groundwater management systems, make PennDOT-required improvements to
roadways near the school and also to construct athletic fields planned to be
used both for the early learning center/elementary school and the district’s
secondary school students.
Another part of the plan is to add a maintenance building
which would be utilized by crews which serve the entire district. That’s
classified by Johnson as an “add alternate,” meaning it could be sent out for
bid but ultimately decided against.
The school board has not yet voted on anything. The drawings
and projections are being made for planning purposes.
Eight athletic fields are planned for the Meadow Brook
property behind the school building.
Opponents of Phoenixville’s eminent domain decision believe
the school board and district overreached and are trying to acquire a property
larger than what they actually need.
The district has contended that Meadow Brook was the only
option that fit their needs for the school and are putting the extra space to use.
Since the district’s secondary schools stand adjacent to
Meadow Brook, the fields would allow for most of the sports teams which have to
go off-campus for practice to stay on district property.
Site plans submitted to Judge Jacqueline Carroll Cody for
the legal dispute with Meadow Brook show two full-size baseball fields, two
softball fields and two multi-purpose fields (where soccer, field hockey,
lacrosse, etc., can be played). Two more multi-purpose field are planned to be
built into one of the baseball fields and one of the softball fields.
One baseball field and one stand-alone multi-purpose field
are being planned to have artificial turf. Johnson said that is not set in
stone but they must be laid out that way in the current plans because of requirements
regarding impermeable space for groundwater retention and disposal.
Ultimately, the school board would decide whether those
fields become turf or not, a swing of approximately $2 million, Johnson said.
If the fields aren’t initially constructed as turf, they
could eventually be converted, Johnson said, especially if a local soccer or
baseball club were to partner with the district in the endeavor.
Off the property, the intersection of Route 29 and Pothouse
Road has been targeted by PennDOT for improvements, which will likely include
the addition of turning lanes and the closing off of Campbell Lane.
Cushing said turning lanes would likely have to be added.
“It’s clearly an intersection that will be impacted and
everyone’s known that for a while,” Cushing said.
As such, the district has had traffic engineers due counts
and analysis of the intersection to “predict what it should look like” but
they’re holding off on final surveying work — which carries additional costs —
to find out the result of the court proceedings.
Cushing said neighbors in the area of Meadow Brook and the
intersection have participated in talks about the plans, which he found
“constructive” and led to the modification of certain designs the district had.
“The core message there is: get involved and provide us with
your thoughts,” Cushing said. “The engineers will certainly respond.”
The Meadow Brook property the district hopes to acquire is a
little more than 50 acres, but only 33 acres are buildable, Johnson said, due
to a protected tributary of Pickering Creek which runs through the golf course.
No new construction can be added within a 150 foot radius of the waterway.
As such, the district’s plans for the site leave the
northeast corner of the property untouched.
Cody’s decision on Meadow Brook’s legal challenge to the
district’s eminent domain decision isn’t expected until at least mid-July.
As such, construction plans are being made so the district
can hit the ground running if the court rules in its favor.
As it stands now, the earliest the new early learning center
and elementary school building could be open and operational is the fall of
2017.
Source: Times
Herald
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