GAINESVILLE - REL Properties, developer of the 607-acre Mundy Mill mixed-use community on Mundy Mill Road, has offered land for a new elementary school site to the Gainesville school board. <br>
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The 19.59-acre tract is at the intersection of Mountain View and Old Oakwood roads. <br>
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"We're pleased to be able to make an offer that will benefit the schools, the city, and the children of Gainesville and Hall County," said REL Properties President Robby Lanier. "Mundy Mill is going to be an asset for the city, as will this site. It is a prime location for an elementary school to serve area children."<br>
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REL Properties has offered 15 acres of land and an option for the Gainesville school board to purchase the remaining 4.59 acres at fair market value when the school board designates the property for a school site. <br>
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The minimum acreage requirements for an elementary school site set by the Georgia Department of Education are five acres plus one acre for every 100 students. Most elementary school buildings in the GCSS have capacity for 650 students, requiring a minimum 12-acre site. For example, both New Holland Elementary and Gainesville Elementary are on sites with 15 usable acres. <br>
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The need for a new school because of the hundreds of students the developments 2,100 homes are expected to produce has been a concern of the school board which has proposed an impact fee on REL to help pay for a new school that school officials say would be needed.<br>
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"The school board wins because this offer is a direct reaction to its concern about the influx of students," Lanier said. "The children win with land for a new school to be built as needed, and it's the children who are most important in this discussion." <br>
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Lanier added that for future residents of Mundy Mill, an on-the-property school will decrease trips going outside the development. "Families living at Mundy Mill will be able to shop, go to work, live, recreate, and now even be close to school. The mixing of uses is a huge advantage of master-planned communities like Mundy Mill," said Lanier. <br>
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The land offer becomes one of the conditions of zoning for the development. REL will give the land to the Gainesville school board at any time prior to its application for a Land Disturbance permit for its last pod of single-family homes, or seven years from the date of zoning approval, whichever comes first. <br>
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In the event the school board does not secure a building permit and begin construction of an elementary school within 12 months after this conveyance, then the developer retains all rights to develop the entire 19.59 acre tract. Also, if no elementary school is constructed on this site within eight years of the date of rezoning approval, then the school board will return the property title to REL.
