The Garden City Telegram
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Further study of land required
Published 8/26/2008 in News : Education
By EMILY BEHLMANNebehlmann@gctelegram.com
The USD 457 Board of Education is holding off on placing an option on about 92 acres of land for a proposed new high school until it receives results from an assessment that would determine whether an area adjacent to the land is classified as a wetland.
The district is studying an area of undeveloped agricultural crop land that lies north of Mary Street and east of the Pheasant Valley neighborhood, inside the U.S. Highway 50/83 bypass. It would cost $590,000 for 92.226 acres, or $6,397 per acre, said Superintendent Rick Atha.
The land would be used for a new high school planned to replace the current GCHS building. Construction of the school, and purchase of the land, would be covered by a $97.5 million bond issue on November’s ballot that also would pay for renovations at several other USD 457 schools.
In June, the board approved hiring Terracon Consulting Engineers & Scientists, an Olathe-based firm with a Garden City office, to conduct a $3,300 environmental study and limited wetland review on the land under consideration for the high school.
Terracon’s report noted no other concerns with the land, but recommended based on its limited wetland review that the district request a “preliminary jurisdictional determination” to see whether any area of the site is considered by the federal government to be a wetland.
Kansas National Wetland Inventory maps did not depict any wetlands on the property under consideration, the report states. But according to historical maps, there was at one time an open body of water on the site, and now, there’s potential that there’s a wetland just east of the property, according to the report.
“There was water standing there at one time, but it hasn’t been there for years, according to the information we’re receiving,” Atha said.
Wetlands are “areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater” enough that they could support vegetation adapted to live in saturated soil conditions, the report states.
Mike Hawkins, office manager at the local Terracon branch, said that before a development is built on a property that does include a wetland, the wetland might need to be mitigated — possibly by moving it elsewhere. However, whether mitigation is necessary would depend on factors including the size of the wetland, he said.
Hawkins wouldn’t comment specifically on the proposed high school site, saying he couldn’t discuss work Terracon is doing with particular clients.
Atha said current plans don’t call for any construction to occur on the area in question. However, the school district plans to purchase enough land that future developments, like baseball or softball fields, could be placed closer to the areas a wetland review would investigate.
The district plans to hire Terracon for the further review, but Atha said he hasn’t received a contract yet for the study, so he doesn’t know how much it would cost.
Also uncertain is the action the district would take if the review does in fact reveal that a portion of the land is classified as a wetland, he said. That would be decided after results from the second study come in, expected in about 15 days, he said.
“This is just a study to make sure we know what we’re getting into,” Atha said.
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