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No room to grow?
(by Mitch Schneider - July 08, 2009)
A group of Clayton residents who organized a community garden are now wondering about the future of that same garden, following the decision by the Clayton School Board to declare surplus and potentially sell the property where the garden was established.
Over the course of two days in late May, approximately 60 Clayton residents built and planted 14 plots in the garden, which is located on a site where some playground equipment had been removed from the grounds of the former Maryland School. At one time, the building had been an elementary school in the Clayton School District before it was closed and rented to a private school.
“The idea for the garden on that site has been floating around for over a year since the school board first began talking about how to use the space,” said Steve Rosenblum, one of the garden’s founders. He added that the previous tenant, Clayton Child Care, moved out after 29 years in the building. “I have presented the idea a number of times along with others in the neighborhood to both the school board, in a private meeting with Dr. Senti, and to the Board of Aldermen. But this gave us the opportunity to do something immediate when [Clayton Child Care] left.”
The future of the garden was thrown into question less than three weeks after its debut. At a June 15 meeting, the Clayton Board of Education held a discussion regarding the Maryland School and the Bracken Building, which was followed by a unanimous vote to declare the buildings as surplus property and place them on the market for possible sale. At one time, the Bracken Building had been the district’s administration building, but the district has not used the buildings in some time, and has rented both buildings to other groups. The Maryland School is currently vacant, but the Bracken Building is still being rented out. Both are on Maryland Avenue near Washington University’s West Campus.
“Yes, it was quite a surprise to all of us that they wanted to declare it surplus right away,” Rosenblum said. “They gave us approval to use it for the next four to five months and we would have to resubmit a proposal again next year if we want to continue.”
In 2008, a committee working on the district’s facilities master plan made a recommendation that the buildings be declared surplus and put up for potential sale, with any money from a sale being used to address district needs. The school board made its decision based on that recommendation.
At the June meeting, about a dozen people spoke out against the decision, expressing concerns ranging from the belief that the board was “fast tracking” the decision without adequate input to worries about what could be built on the site if the property was sold.
“If I lived next door to this property, I’d be concerned too,” said School Board President Omri Praiss. “But to say it has been fast tracked is not fair, it is false. We have looked at the use of this property numerous times over the last 30 years. Any potential sale would be subject to city zoning regulations.”
Several other board members said they would be willing to work with the city on a plan for the property or to sell it outright to the city. The board members said that they won’t necessarily receive offers on the property just because it is being put on the market, but that if they are offered something for it, they are required to consider it.
Rosenblum said that some residents plan to work with Clayton city officials on ideas of how to purchase the land with a combination of a land swap with the district, corporate funding, the Century Fund (developed by the city to raise money for the city’s 100th anniversary in 2013) and other ideas, but all of those ideas are still in the early planning stages.
This is not the first time that the properties have caused controversy within the community. Earlier this year, as the district was preparing for a bond issue to finance improvements cited in the facilities master plan, the board announced that they were considering a land swap with Washington University. The proposed swap did not happen, but had it occurred, the university would have given the district the former CBC High School site and monetary compensation in exchange for Wydown Middle School, the Maryland School and the Bracken Building.
Nor is this the first time that the district has examined ways to use the property. In 2006, a real estate consulting firm produced a report considering three development options for the property: retaining it as is and continuing to rent it out; selling all or a portion of the property to a developer; and co-developing the property through a partnership with a developer.
The study found that the area would be best used for residential development and presented several options covering a number of densities, from single-family detached homes to a new mid- to high-rise condominium construction. Several of the options included the possibility of retaining the Bracken Building and converting it into condos. Depending on the density, the study placed the value of the property to the school district as between $6 million and $14 million.
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