BREAKING: CMS wants new high school in Ballantyne but lacks money

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Schools want more money from county to fulfill construction promises; pricey land in south Charlotte

The school board says it has identified a spot for a new high school in south Charlotte — a parcel in Ballantyne that many local parents find suitable — but that it lacks the money to buy the land and build the school.

In a letter to the county, the board says it needs money “to purchase property from the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte” if the land were to become available, according to an article last night from The Charlotte Observer.

That’s a reference to an 80-acre parcel at the corner of Johnston Road and Community House Road in Ballantyne — just inside I-485 — across the street from the soon-to-be-extinct Earth Fare. As opposed to other sites that the school district has considered, the mostly vacant site owned by the Diocese behind the British International School is widely considered to be an ideal spot for a new high school. It’s right in the middle of Ardrey Kell and South Meck — two of the high schools that need relief from overcrowding:

Asked Monday night by The Ledger if the letter to the county means that the Ballantyne parcel is the favored site for a new high school, board member Sean Strain replied: “That’s exactly what that means. We want that property, as we believe it to be the nearly ideal location, and a very good site, for the south county high school.”

There are a couple of catches, though:

• Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools says it doesn’t have the money. The letter to the county says that because of escalating construction costs, the amount of money voters approved in the 2017 school bonds is insufficient to complete planned high schools in Steele Creek, west Charlotte and south Charlotte. The Diocese site is valued at $33.6M. CMS had earlier explored building the south Charlotte high school on land behind Olde Providence Elementary, which it already owns, but neighbors there and Ballantyne residents said that location is unsuitable.

• The Diocese land isn’t actually available at the moment. The Ledger reported in September that the site was up for sale this summer. A real-estate source told The Ledger last week that the parcel is now believed to be under contract to somebody else. The Diocese didn’t return an email last week asking about the status of the land.

CMS seems to believe the land could become available, though. That could happen if the contract falls through, or if a developer buys it and sells a piece of it to the schools. It’s a big site, although the portion near Four Mile Creek is in a floodplain.

There are few suitable sites for a new high school in south Charlotte. Much of the available land has been developed over the last 20 years, and the land that is available is expensive. It might have been helpful in the last couple decades if somebody had thought to set aside more land for schools in an area that everybody knew was growing quickly.

What’s next: The letter to the county puts the ball in the county’s court. The county doesn’t have tens of millions of extra dollars lying around to dispense for cost overruns and escalating land prices. There’s a meeting Feb. 25 to discuss options.

Learn more: Read the CMS letter to the county on The Ledger’s website. [added 2/11/20 3:35 p.m.]

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The Charlotte Ledger is published by Tony Mecia, an award-winning former Charlotte Observer business reporter and editor. He lives in Charlotte with his wife and three children.