Documents show more details about proposed Harris County School District land swap
The Harris County School District will have more land in what officials consider the right place to accommodate student population growth if a proposed property swap comes to fruition.
The HCSD board is scheduled to vote on the proposal during Thursday’s meeting, starting at 6:30 p.m.
According to the pending agreement, HCSD would acquire 200 acres of property owned by the Saunders Land Trust in exchange for 72.51 acres of HCSD property. HCSD also would pay the trust $150,000 to make up for the difference in appraised value of the parcels. The school district still would come out $124,000 ahead in the deal because the Saunders property was appraised at $627,000 and the HCSD property was appraised at $353,000, HCSD assistant superintendent Justin Finney said at a March 29 public forum.
The Saunders property that HCSD would obtain is between Hudson Mill Road and Highway 315, directly behind Mulberry Creek Elementary School and Pate Park. Those 200 acres contain primarily a pine plantation, with trees 3-4 years old, and no structures, Finney said.
The HCSD property that the trust would obtain is between Highway 208 and Highway 85, partly in the city of Waverly Hall. Those 72.51 acres, comprising four parcels, are a mix of woodlands and open land.
HCSD’s plan for the land
This deal would help HCSD’s long-term planning to accommodate student population growth, especially along the Highway 315 corridor and near I-185, Finney said.
“We have to consider getting those properties that we may be able to use while they’re available and affordable and secure that property in the high-growth areas,” he said. “If we need a new school in 10 years and waited 10 years to purchase that property, it would possibly be out of our reach financially or not available at all.”
Obtaining property in that area also increases HCSD’s chance of having utilities already available for new schools.
“Once we have several buildings on one campus,” Finney said, “sometimes septic (tank) becomes an old type of technology and the environmental impacts of septic are becoming more and more problematic and under scrutiny by environmental protection groups and agencies.”
HCSD’s greatest need now is for a new elementary school in 3-5 years, Finney said. Most of the housing growth is in the Mulberry Grove subdivision on the south side of Highway 315, where the land has been cleared for apartments expected to be occupied in 18 months, he said.
The school district is working with the Mulberry Grove developer, Woodruff Real Estate, to secure a site for a new elementary school, as it has been indicated in the plan since its inception, Finney said.
Along with adding an elementary school, which would bring HCSD’s total to five, the current pace of growth prompts district officials to predict they eventually will need a new high school in addition to the current one within 10 years.
“This property could have many uses,” Finney said. “It could be an area for a high school. It could be athletic facilities. It could be centralized transportation facilities. There could be intergovernmental agreements with county (government) and so forth.”
A creek running through the Saunders property requires a buffer for wetlands, Finney said, but HCSD still would have plenty of room to use the rest of the 200 acres for its needs. For example, he said, the campus comprising Harris County High School, the new Carver Middle School and their combined athletic facilities is about 80 acres.
Environmental assessments of the properties would be conducted if the contract is executed, Finney said. The school board’s approval would start 60 days of due diligence, when both parties can walk away from the contract for any reason, he said. The tentative closing date is in July.
Finney said anyone who has a question about the proposal can contact him at finney-j@harris.k12.ga.us or 706-628-4206 ext. 1304.
History of the properties
According to online records from the Harris County Tax Assessor’s Office, the owner of the Saunders Land Trust property is Richard V. Saunders Sr. The 2021 appraised value is listed as $203,137.
Harris County chief appraiser Wayne Morris told the Ledger-Enquirer the reason HCSD’s appraiser valued the Saunders property more than $400,000 above the county’s appraisal is because the county appraises only the land for tax assessment and HCSD’s appraiser added the value of the timber on the land.
According to the contract for the proposed land exchange, the Saunders property was part of the McClung and McLeroy family places. It’s the same real estate as described and conveyed by deed from W.W. Williams to J.W. Thompson, then from Thompson and John Davis Thompson to G.B. Saunders.
The contract also says the two largest tracts of the HCSD property to be obtained by the Saunders Land Trust were known as the George T. Whisnant Farm. The county’s property records show more details about the four parcels in the 72.51 acres Saunders would obtain from HCSD.
Although the records on the Harris County Tax Assessor’s Office website show different sale prices for the four parcels, chief appraiser Wayne Morris told the Ledger-Enquirer one was a typo and they were part of the same deal when HCSD bought the land from E. Mullins Whisnant in 2006 for a total of $484,200:
- 56 acres (39 woodlands, 17 open land) in Waverly Hall, current assessed value $173,323.
- 15.5 acres of unincorporated rural land, current assessed value $93,000.
- 0.88 acres in Waverly Hall, current assessed value $25,000.
- 0.13 acres in Waverly Hall, current assessed value $15,000.
Saunders Land Trust representative Buddy Burns, vice president of the Newnan real estate company Bowers & Burns, declined to tell the Ledger-Enquirer why the trust agreed to the deal and what the trust plans to do with the HCSD property after obtaining it.
This story was originally published April 18, 2022 at 4:13 PM.
