FBN Report: Emergency Relief Approved for Another School in Sienna Plantation to Reduce Over-Crowding
Fort Bend ISD Board Votes To Start Now On A New Sienna Elementary School
by Bob Dunn, Mar 26, 2007, 10 35 pm
Fort Bend Independent School District will proceed as soon as possible to build a new elementary school, to relieve overcrowding in existing elementaries in the Sienna Plantation area.
The FBISD Board of Trustees voted unanimously Monday evening to spend up to $17 million from the district’s general operations fund balance to build the school. Plans are to replenish the fund from proceeds of a bond referendum going before voters in November. . .
. . . As for the new Sienna Plantation elementary, it would relieve severe overcrowding at Scanlan Oaks and Sienna Crossing elementaries. According to district figures, Scanlan Oaks has a functional capacity of 738 students, but its actual enrollment is 1,061. Sienna Crossing’s functional capacity also is 738, but actual enrollment is 912 students.
Bryant said he favored building the school and relieve overcrowding, but wanted to make sure “we don’t open a Pandora’s box” by committing money from the fund balance. . .
. . . The board also voted to approve a contract submitted by Sienna/Johnson North L.P., developer of the Sienna Plantation community, under which the district would buy 12 acres northwest of Baines Middle School for another new elementary school. The price on the contract is $601,128, or $50,094 per acre.
And, the board approved a similar contract for a 9.634-acre elementary school site in the Aliana development, along the Grand Parkway, at a price tag of $461,622, or $47,916 per acre. (click the title link above for the entire story)
Background on this can be seen at: http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/2720/fbisd-trustees-may-pay-for-school-from-fund-balance-spend-1m-for-2-school-sites#c011205
Labels: concerned taxpayers, homeowners, market value for land, over-crowding, Sienna Plantation Schools, voters
posted by responsible_dvlpmnt at Tuesday, March 27, 2007
7 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
FBN comments:
In February, the board discussed building the school now and repaying the fund balance from proceeds of a bond issue to be voted on in November. That plan, however, assumes that voters will approve the bonds.
Meanwhile, an agenda for tonight’s meeting shows Sienna/Johnson North L.P., developer of the Sienna Plantation community, has submitted a contract under which the district would buy 12 acres northwest of Baines Middle School for another new elementary school. The price on the contract is $601,128, or $50,094 per acre.
By comparison, a contract for a 9.634-acre elementary school site in the Aliana development, along the Grand Parkway, carries a price tag of $461,622, or $47,916 per acre.
1 Sienna Parent - Mar 26, 11:58 am
Before the comments start showing up questioning why developers aren’t offering better deals on the land for these two proposed schools, I did just research here to see what the district spent on land for the last two elementary schools (#41 and 42). According to the FBISD archived board minutes from Nov. 14, 2005, Telfair sold the land for their school to the district for a little more than $601,000 while Shadow Creek Ranch sold their land for about $517,500. The archived PDF document does not mention how many acres were involved
( http://www.fortbendisd.com/board/boardbriefs/Board_Minutes_20051116_1437.pdf?pdf=..%2Fboard%2Fboardbriefs%2FBoard%255FMinutes%255F20051116%255F1437%252Epdf)
I believe 18 months later that these $‘s seem well-in-line with the most recent purchase price and I hope the agenda items are approved tonight (obviously from my user name, my true interest is in seeing the land purchased for the elementary school at Sienna).
More:
2 Chris D. Calvin, Ph.D. - Mar 26, 12:44 pm
Sienna Parent (I assume you are one of the candidates who lives out here or are supporting him?),
I too live in Sienna Plantation and support the building of the new school because of the severe over-crowding we now face, but defending the price is something I can’t do. After all, poor planning and development, which they are a party to, has much to do with the problem we are facing right now. Some of the features like the hundreds of apartments now going in (the first of 250+ units of an allowed up to 2700 units, not including those multi-family units scheduled in South Sienna’s DA with Mayor Owen & Missouri City) were brought here by those you defend.
I too have reviewed the market prices charged for the 3 schools here already (it’s about what we paid for our residential land, not a break for the district is it?), but would ask you to go to them and seek real answers as to why they won’t sell the land to the district at agricultural prices, which is what they paid for it. Also ask Petros why he isn’t insisting on this pricing to help with the funding.
Already our district has a AA bond rating which has forced us to borrow from the state for the next bond election. The board will be asked and pressured to seek pay-back for this emergency school from an election that hasn’t happened.
Does this make any sense? With this additional $600K added to the previous land costs, this company has done very well by the district so far. They can kick the land in on this one and encourage others in their business to do the same through the GFCEDC, which they are a member. Help save this district!
Has Petros even looked at nearby land for less? Is this good planning???
3 fbisdtaxpayer - Mar 26, 03:21 pm
Sounds like a great deal for the developers in our county!
4 Mother Hubbard - Mar 26, 04:33 pm
Thanks Johnson Development for caring so much about your community that you profit from by providing land for schools. Hopefully overcrowding in Sienna will force home buyers elsewhere.
more-
5 Mark - Mar 26, 05:03 pm
Chris, you’re not being accurate or fair in your statement about what you paid. First of all, you bought your Bees Creek parcel at least 5 years ago and maybe longer. But even then the average BC parcel was 100K per acre. Maybe even more for the water frontage lots.
Five years later, 50K per acre is much less than what you paid. And I see where Bees Creek houses are now listed for considerably more money when they are trying to be re-sold. A 400K house when purchased is now on the market for 600-700K.
6 Mark - Mar 26, 05:14 pm
One other thought on the parcel of land for the Sienna school. Does anyone know specifically where it is? If it’s right next to Baines, those are pretty expensive lots with very mature trees.
If it’s much further northwest, you’re getting closer to Anderson Springs and the lot values go down considerably.
Also, a good point of comparison would be to see what the various churches paid for their lots nearby. The Catholic Church has a 10-acre lot or so just north of Baines. Does anyone know what they paid?
7 Chris Calvin, Ph.D. - Mar 26, 06:58 pm
Mark,
(twinstuff?) It’s interesting how many times you have come to the defense of the company in question whenever I post.
Not sure where you got your info on what I paid in 2003 for our lot, but it is incorrect (We paid in the 50k range, you can look it up using the online CAD and tracking back or just ask the company, but as usual your information is only coming from one side in this).
Additionally, we are talking about all developers who want the amenities in their communities to attract sales. Other states do it (sell the land at agri. costs) ours can too along with the other big Houston dev. co.
Now for real data. All the schools currently in our community where purchased at market value and I think the article above shows that they are even charging more than another MP community (I checked this with the district).
Just e-mail Petros and ask. I did. Next, you ignore the zoning buster apts. that are going to be completed before the school is even in, thus increasing the over-crowding. The district numbers on this are 145%+ functional capacity at SCE, 165%+ at Scanlon and currently 104%+ functional capacity at BBMS (without the apts. data, who brought the apts? And who is bringing thousands more?).
Sorry Mark as in the days of the old SiennaTalk you need to get the information from all sides. Again ck the CAD on our property and then an apology may be due us.
We are for a new school, but lets not look through these rose colored glasses and since you do have a relationship with them why don’t you ask them to do this (say please and smile real big). . . ;-}
Now for the whole world, how much did you pay on your lot and house and where do you live???
8 ntparent - Mar 26, 07:46 pm
It’s funny how the Sienna people think the world revolves around them.
9 Mother Hubbard - Mar 26, 09:32 pm
it’s funny how people like “nt” really don’t have any idea what’s going on is what i think.
But they probably don’t have any kids.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
http://lumerkoz.edu Jonny was here http://www.lovespeaks.org/profiles/blogs/buy-famvir labware http://www.comicspace.com/adalat/ tiring http://riderx.info/members/Buy-Vicodin.aspx peacefully http://malgorz.com/members/Buy-Accutane.aspx planwithease metrosao http://www.comicspace.com/buspar/ merriment campbellneil
Post a Comment
<< Home