Wellington inks deals
School district purchases land

By Gary Raham
Wellington Correspondent

Poudre School District and ZWZ, LLC on Dec. 15 finalized a $1 million purchase of 18.5 acres of land west of Interstate 25 in The Knolls housing development on the south side of Wellington.

Ed Holder, PSD construction manager, said a cooperative effort involving the district, the town of Wellington and the developer made it financially feasible for PSD to buy the land.

The purchase does not guarantee when, or if, a Wellington school will be built on the site, however. The PSD Board of Education authorized the land purchase following an executive session in November. The parcel is one of several the district now owns in high-growth areas.

In recent months, PSD hosted community meetings to provide input to the Enrollment Planning Steering Committee on options for future school construction, school closings or redistricting in light of uneven population growth in the district.

In December, the committee recommended to the superintendent that the district build two new elementary schools--one in Wellington and one in southeast Fort Collins. The board will discuss Superintendent Jerry Wilson's recommendation on Jan. 9. Board meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Support Services Center, 2407 LaPorte Ave., in Fort Collins. This is an opportunity for Wellington residents to comment on the community's need for a second elementary school.

The board will likely make a decision at its regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 23. (PSD posts meeting schedules and agendas on its web site at www.psdschools.org.) The earliest a new school could open in Wellington, should it be approved, would be fall 2007.

The town of Wellington helped make the district's land purchase in a prime commercial development area more agreeable to ZWZ by giving back development rights to nine acres in Boxelder Commons that had been designated as open space, according to town administrator Larry Lorentzen. Lorentzen also said the town waived some development fees in Boxelder Commons for up to 108 multi-family units, amounting to about $5,000 per dwelling.

The land the school district purchased has water and sewer lines in place, as well as roads, said Fred Ziegler, one of the partners in ZWZ. "The school district got a good deal," he said.