Last week, the Park City School District voted to approve a $6 million purchase of 56 acres of land near Round Valley, potentially for a new school, workforce housing or other uses.
The parcel is adjacent to U.S. 40 near the trail access to Round Valley in the Trailside neighborhood.
Park City School District Business Administrator Todd Hauber said that before deciding to purchase the land, the district communicated with the Summit County planning office.
“Right now, we’re seeing that about 35% of our employees are commuting into the community to work for the school district, and we anticipate that that number will only increase in time,” he said. “And recognizing that there's not enough inventory of affordable housing for our employees, we feel that we might have to at some point step in and help in that situation so that we can have our employees here living within the community which the board values.”
To prepare for growth, the school district has been looking for land suitable for future school sites for seven years. Hauber said the sale/purchase agreement would not close for 45 days, during which time they’ll thoroughly inspect the property and perform their due diligence.
He said it had been a frustrating endeavor because property prices continue to climb in the area, and land developers can easily outbid the school district.
“It really is a land banking strategy,” Hauber said. “I've been looking for parcels of land since 2014, and every time we get close to a parcel that's large enough, someone with more money comes in and then snatches it up, or it gets repurposed in some other way. So, we were able to work with the owner on this one and actually take something that was much higher on the market and get down to a price that a school district could afford.”
Park City School Board President Erin Grady said purchasing land for future needs is part of their obligation as a school board.
“Right now, we’re just trying to think into the future and land bank at this point,” Grady said. “There’s very few parcels of land with that size left in the area, and it's definitely something we are just trying to think into the future and make sure that we have some land bank set aside for the district.”
The school district has a $20 million capital fund that has been accruing to buy land for future school sites. Forecasts indicate the Park City School District population will double by 2060.
