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District wants land for school
By ROBERT KING © St. Petersburg Times, published January 13, 2001 SPRING HILL -- The school district's quest to find land for its next elementary school is focused now on three sites within the 1,300-acre Sand Hill Scout Reservation. School officials are looking to buy 20 acres that would become home to the county's 11th elementary school, expected to be built within five years as a relief valve for crowded classrooms. In recent years, high land costs or owners unwilling to sell have stymied the district's search for land. But school officials say talks are moving ahead with the Boy Scout's West Central Florida Council, which manages Sand Hill. "We're very pleased with the negotiations," said district engineer Chris Wert, who has been involved in the discussions. Sand Hill, just south of State Road 50 and just east of Weeki Wachee, is essentially an island of forest surrounded by suburban sprawl. It was once owned by Larry DiePolder, the founder of DiePolder Electric in St. Petersburg. Before his death in 1978, DiePolder willed the land to the Boy Scouts, who have since added $2-million worth of facilities -- from tent cabins and latrines to an Olympic-sized swimming pool and a rappelling tower -- to support weekend and summer camp outings. Last year, 20,000 scouts trouped through the reservation. Wert said the district has identified three 20-acre areas that are the most likely spots in the county for Hernando County's next elementary school: An area just south of the entrance to High Point and behind the Community Medical Center. Set back from SR 50 by about 700 feet, it would use the traffic light and turn lanes at the High Point entrance. Wert says it is the ideal spot. An area just south of the entrance to Oak Hill Hospital. It has similar attributes as the land near High Point. But it might offer slightly less of a buffer from SR 50. An area even farther west of the Oak Hill entrance that basically covers Sand Hill's northwest corner. In terms of a new school, the Sand Hill sites offer easy access to SR 50 without sitting right next to the road. More important, they give the school district a position in an area of expected population growth -- north of Spring Hill along U.S. 19. John Cabeza, a scout executive for the West Central Florida Council, said the scouts are willing to listen to the school district's overtures because they "want to be supportive of the county and the youth of the area." Cabeza said the scouts' primary obligations under the terms of DiePolder's will is to serve scouts and to preserve the land. To that end, the Scouts will never consider allowing commercial ventures on the reservation. But Cabeza said making room for a school on the reservation would not conflict with DiePolder's intentions. Thus, their door is still open. "Really the ball is in their court as far as that goes," Cabeza said. Any deal would have to be approved by the 63-member board of the West Central Florida Council and its counterpart with the Gulf Ridge Council of the Boy Scouts, which shares ownership of the reservation. No offers are on the table. And the district has, as yet, secured no options to buy. But Wert said the school district has thrown out an initial offer: $150,000 for 20 acres -- $7,500 an acre. The district is willing to sweeten the deal by granting the scouts full access to athletic fields on the school campus as well offering the use of some school buildings, such as the lunchroom/auditorium. "It's a win-win," said Graydon Howe, the school district's facilities director. "It's good for kids. That's what the Boy Scouts are all about. I'm an optimist." School Board Chairman Jim Malcolm said things are "favorable" for the establishment of a school on the Sand Hill reservation. "That seems about the best thing going now," he said. Sand Hill also hosts the Brooksville Raid, an annual Civil War battle re-enactment, and is home to a series of underwater caves that draw diving enthusiasts from around the world. Previously, school leaders had identified land owned by the city of St. Petersburg near Weeki Wachee Spring as an ideal site. And they have been trying since as far back as 1998 to persuade St. Petersburg to part with 20 acres just southeast of the U.S. 19 and SR 50 intersection. But St. Petersburg wants to complete a deal with the state to sell its property west of U.S. 19 around the spring itself before it considers selling its holdings east of the highway, said Bruce Grimes, the city's property manager. Grimes said 2001 may be the year both transactions can be made. But Hernando school officials aren't holding their breath. Howe, the district's facilities director, said such efforts are "going nowhere." On the east side of Hernando County, school officials have talked about building a new school in the Ridge Manor area that would serve kindergarten through the eighth-grade. That might happen eventually. But land prices in the area have been as high as $20,000 an acre -- far more than the district has available for a land purchase. Wert said land prices on the east side have increased by up to 40 percent over the past three years. Such costs, combined with faster growth on the county's west side, make the Sand Hill property all the more attractive to school officials.
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