WEST ASHLEY — Charleston school officials are planning to buy land for a new elementary school within the massive Long Savanna development, which is slated to bring 4,500 new homes to outer West Ashley.
At an audit and finance committee meeting Oct. 1, school district officials announced they will borrow $9 million through a bond issuance to pay for the 11.5-acre parcel.
Jeff Borowy, Charleston County School District’s chief operating officer, said the new school building would cost approximately $70 million, although the price could fluctuate. It would accommodate up to 1,200 students and relieve some of the pressure on nearby elementary schools, such as Drayton Hall and Springfield, which are nearing capacity.
Borowy added that one of the factors leading the district toward building a school at the site was the traffic challenges along Bees Ferry Road and how a school in the area could potentially serve as a solution.
A school located within the Long Savanna development would reduce traffic as buses and families would not need to leave the area for school, Borowy said.
The exact location of the new school remains unclear, but it would primarily serve the families moving into the development, he said.
When the city looks at where they put amenities, traffic is one of the things to consider, Mayor William Cogswell said.
City leaders pushed for the deal between the developer and the school district after the district initially passed on the offer, citing long delays with the build-out.
If the site isn’t used for a school, hundreds of apartments could be built there, Cogswell said. There were two other offers from apartment developers, he told the City Council’s real estate committee meeting last month.
“I think the school idea would be an incredible amenity for Long Savanna and keep cars off the road,” Cogswell said. “I think it’s a win-win.”
It’s the third time this year that the city has stepped in to stop the development of dense apartment units in already congested parts of West Ashley.
Nearby, in the West Ashley Circle area, a developer had planned to build 300 apartments, but the city purchased the land in March to build an operations and training center for the Charleston Fire Department.
In May, the city purchased a pair of properties across Old Towne Road from the Ashley Landing shopping center, which is undergoing a $345 million redevelopment.
The plan is to build city offices there in hopes of cutting down commutes for city employees and saving West Ashley residents a trip downtown for permits and other city business. Realtors had marketed the properties, saying they could build up to 125 apartments.