Move will delay construction of new school by at least two months, School Board says.
The Stafford Board of Supervisors’ vote on Tuesday evening to delay approval of a conditional use permit for the county’s 19th elementary school will “significantly delay” construction of the school.
“The decision regarding [elementary school 19] significantly delays construction on a project that was previously approved by our [Board of Supervisors],” School Board Chair Maureen Siegmund said. “We hope that they will act in the best interest of our students and reconsider the implication of their delayed vote with regard to ES19.”
Division staff had planned to put the project out to bid in two or three weeks and hoped to break ground in October, Jason Towery, executive director of facilities and maintenance for the school division, told supervisors.
Delaying approval of the conditional use permit (CUP) will mean groundbreaking can’t start until December when weather is more unpredictable, Towery said.
It could also cause Brooke Point’s tennis season to be delayed, because the tennis courts need to be relocated for the elementary school.
The Board considered two CUP applications at Tuesday’s regular meeting, to allow both elementary schools 18 and 19 to exceed the maximum height limit for a school building in A1 zoning category.
The vote to approve the CUP for elementary school 18—which will be built off Truslow Road in the Hartwood district, on the same campus as high school 6—was unanimous.
But approval of the CUP for elementary 19—which will be located on the campus of Brooke Point High School in the Aquia district and was the subject of contentious disagreement between the School Board and some supervisors earlier this year—snagged.
Supervisors Crystal Vanuch and Pamela Yeung and Chair Meg Bohmke—who during budget discussions earlier this year expressed the most opposition to the School Board’s decision to locate elementary school 19 at Brooke Point—asked multiple questions Tuesday about the traffic impacts of the new school.
Supervisor Monica Gary, who represents the Aquia district, reminded her colleagues that they were only being asked to approve a height increase. She also stressed that schools across the county are severely over-crowded.
“I want to come back to the [fact that] the CUP is for height, not for traffic, not for approving [location],” she said. “It would be unfortunate if we delay seats for 1,070 children who are in over-crowded schools and [getting instruction] in hallways and closets. I can’t believe we’re back at this discussion.”
Elementary schools 18 and 19 are based on the same prototype, which the division plans to use for all new elementary schools going forward. The prototype is three-stories and up to 57-feet tall.
The taller design was selected to maximize capacity on smaller parcels of land, Towery said.
“Land is not getting cheaper or more available in this county and we’re seeing more problems finding land,” he said.
Both schools would reach the 57-foot maximum height at the roof access stairway only, staff said. Otherwise, the buildings would be only about 12-feet taller than the 35-foot maximum height allowed in the A1 zoning district.
There will be no exterior lights mounted higher than 35-feet, Towery said, and plans call for the air conditioning units to be located in a maintenance yard and not on the roof of the buildings.
“This is to help not only with operations and maintenance but also to deter some of the [potential noise] impacts [on neighboring properties,” Towery said.
County staff and the Planning Commission recommend approval of both CUPs.
But a motion by Vanuch to delay approval of the CUP for elementary school 19 until August 20 passed by a vote of 5-to-1.
George Washington district representative Deuntay Diggs was not present at Tuesday’s meeting and Bohmke said he had asked his colleagues to “defer this item.”
Gary said she didn’t understand why supervisors felt the need to delay when they had just unanimously approved the same request for another school.
“I think it is disgusting that we are deferring this,” she said. “This is not about politics, not about pleasing your people … this is about children. We don’t take care of children in this county? Good luck having people want to come here, live here, work here, play here, and all the great things we talk about, because they’re not going to want to, because we don’t even take care of kids. That’s a big deal.”
Gary voted with the prevailing side to defer approval of the CUP for elementary school 19 so that she could motion for the vote to be reconsidered, but Bohmke declared the meeting adjourned.
