Levy Co. wants to donate land to build school, but

superintendent says district can’t justify one right now

Oxford Township’s water and sewer districts got a little bigger last week after officials added to them almost 200 acres of vacant land that had previously been part of gravel mining operations.

This will allow the properties, owned by the Edward C. Levy Company, to eventually be developed for commercial and residential uses.

The township board voted 7-0 to expand both districts to include 53.25 acres located at the northeast corner of M-24 and Ray Rd.

According to Dick Zanotti, a professional engineer with Levy, the company plans to sell the property for commercial or office use.

Officials also voted 7-0 to add to the sewer district four parcels located west of Dunlap Rd., south of Granger Rd. and east of N. Coats Rd. Theses parcels total 137.13 acres, however, 15.3 acres of that, located just west of Whisper Lake, was kept excluded from the sewer district.

These four parcels are part of a larger 311-acre site, the eastern 173.87 acres of which were already part of the sewer district. The entire site is currently within the township’s water district.

According to Zanotti, the plan is to turn the site into a 400-unit residential development with a “nice variety” of houses, ranging from small to large.

“This site has a lot of character,” he said.

He noted it has a 50-acre lake, plus two small lakes and the northern portion of Whisper Lake.

“It’s ready, I think, for development and it could be a very good location right next to Waterstone,” Zanotti told the board.

Township Supervisor Bill Dunn said he saw a rendering of the proposed development and he really liked that “there was not one house on that (50-acre) lake.” Instead, there was green belt around it, which would serve as public space.

“I’ve never seen that in a development where they would give up all the lake lots,” Dunn said.

Zanotti noted Levy is prepared to donate approximately 20 to 25 acres to Oxford Community Schools for the purpose of building a school on Dunlap Rd.

“We’ve been talking with them for the last two or three years,” he said.

Superintendent’s response

When asked about the potential donation, Superintendent of Schools Tim Throne said he would accept it “in a heartbeat.”

“I’ll take that land tomorrow,” he said.

The problem is, Throne said Levy wants the district to construct a school on the site before the residential development is built in order to help attract potential homebuyers.

But he can’t do that right now because the need isn’t there to justify it.

“I don’t have the numbers to build another school,” Throne said.

“The reality for us is that our seated enrollment – (the) traditional population of students that are (within) our borders – has been exceedingly flat,” he explained. “All of our growth has been through our virtual academy.”

Throne said neither he nor the state wants districts to build schools that end up sitting vacant due to a lack of funds to operate them.

“The last thing I want to do is build a school and put Oxford in a situation where we’re closing some other school down because we can’t afford to operate another school,” Throne said.

Throne has told Levy representatives that if they donate the land, the district would be willing to enter into “a written agreement” stating “we won’t do anything with that land except build a school” when the need for one arises.

“I won’t put a bus garage on there. I won’t put a special office on there,” he said. “I’ll make it contingent upon (the district building)

a school. But, what I can’t do, in good faith, is tell (them) I’m going to build a school tomorrow or even in three years.”

As much as he would like to have the land, Throne said he can’t obtain it under false pretences by telling Levy “the district’s going to (build a school) when I know in my heart of hearts we can’t do that right now.”

“The earliest that we could try and build a school would probably be (like) five years (from now),” he noted.

If a school was to be built on that site, Throne said based on the way things look today, it would “most likely” be a facility for students in the fifth and sixth grades.

“If I build a 5-6 school, I can tear the fifth grade out of all the elementary schools and instantly increase my capacity at every one of my elementaries,” he explained. “It also removes the sixth grade (from) the middle school and allows me to (move) the ninth grade at the high school back down to the middle school. Now, I increase capacity at my high school, which is the tightest building that we have as far as capacity.”