The Garden City Telegram
Email this story | Add Your Comment
| Read (0) Comments
District begins bond issue sessions
Published 9/10/2008 in News : Education
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
While a few had other complaints, most Pheasant Valley residents at a meeting Tuesday night were concerned about the traffic issues that would be created by having a high school just east of their housing development, saying they'd otherwise be happy to have USD 457 as a neighbor.
Superintendent Rick Atha met with the residents at USD 457's district office, saying they were among the first groups of patrons he'd invited to hear a presentation about a $97.5 million bond issue on November's ballot, since with a successful bond issue, a new high school would be "sitting in your backyard," he said.
The proposed $92.5 replacement Garden City High School is part of the district's long-range facility plan, devised to deal with overcrowding and other building issues. The plan also includes converting the current GCHS to a middle school, converting Abe Hubert Middle School to an elementary school and expanding Garfield Elementary School into an early childhood center.
The board voted Monday night to place an option on about 92 acres of land, at a cost of $590,000 with a successful bond issue, north of Mary Street and east of Campus Drive, inside the U.S. Highway 50/83 Bypass. The Pheasant Valley housing development would sit between the school and Campus Drive.
Atha said the only way students and staff could access their new school would be to turn from Campus Drive onto what would be an eastward extension of Pioneer Drive. The street lies a few hundred yards south of Pheasant Valley.
School buses, maintenance vehicles and delivery trucks, however, would reach the school via Short Grass Road, off Campus Drive, which is the only street Pheasant Valley residents can use to access their neighborhood.
That bothers some residents, including Kathy Heaton.
"I like the idea of having a new school there, but I'm against the traffic coming through," she said after the meeting. "They need another entrance."
It would create extra traffic and extra noise, she and neighbor Lynda Turner said.
Turner said she also would be worried about the student and staff traffic, even though it wouldn't be coming directly through her neighborhood.
The vehicles all would have to use Campus Drive to get to school, and that's what Pheasant Valley residents use to get to central Garden City, she said. Campus is four lanes south of Mary Street, but narrows to two lanes to the north.
"I think Campus will be just saturated," resident Ryan Kimbrel said after the meeting. "It will be tough getting to work in the morning."
Atha said the school district has been working with the city on other ideas, like the possibility of easing traffic on Campus Drive by building a new road that would allow students and staff to drive straight from the access road to Mary Street, or by widening Campus to four lanes north of Mary Street.
Those decisions are up to the city commission, not the school district, but Kimbrel said he hopes USD 457 puts some "leverage" on the city to improve traffic issues near the site of its proposed school.
According to City Engineer Steve Cottrell, the city had discussed with the school district a connection to Mary Street, but "that discussion hasn't been finalized."
As for major widening of Campus, Cottrell said, that discussion hasn't occurred. There has been "brief" discussion, he said, of at least widening Campus at the new intersection for the high school -- the widening would include adding a right turn lane for northbound traffic.
Traffic issues aside, some residents raised concerns about the noise in general that would come from placing a high school on land that now sits empty.
"I didn't build my house out there for a high school to be next to it," said one woman whose name wasn't available. "It was a quiet community. ... There are gonna be problems."
John Fuller, of Overland Park's DLR Group architectural firm, said at a previous meeting that planners tried to address that potential concern in the way it developed an outline for the high school.
Building plans show that the closest school property to Pheasant Valley would be staff parking, which would sit on the west side of the school -- students would park to the south. The building itself would be situated so that classrooms and the library would lie to the west, closest to the neighborhood, whereas what Atha said are the louder areas -- the athletic and performing arts facilities -- would be to the east, closer to the bypass.
Those facilities, though, like the walking track in the gym and the outdoor tennis courts, would be open to the public, which pleased residents, including Kimbrel.
"I think the school district probably would be a good neighbor," said Kimbrel, who added that he'd probably vote for the bond issue despite traffic concerns.
One woman whose name wasn't available encouraged fellow residents at the meeting to support the bond issue, saying the school district needs the facility improvements and that having quality schools is "an advantage to us as a community."
Staff writer Stephanie Farley contributed to this report.
Found 0 comment(s)!
Twitter Updates
