Eminent Domain Lawsuit
From The Lovejoy Way
See Charlie Gains comments and the discussion that followed by the School Board Trustees at the July 2009 School Board Meeting.
Email from Dennis Womack
June 24, 2009 Daris, I have addressed your questions below. Also, please see an Executive Summary attached for additional information on this matter. 1. Whose property is being condemned? 1555 Estates Parkway, Lucas, Texas 2. Why is it being condemned? Future elementary school site. 3. How much will the owners be compensated? The appraised value of $62,000 per acre. 4. What other options were looked at? In order to select an elementary site, the district worked with our demographer to determine where the central locations will be upon buildout of the district. The demographer gave us a couple of options based on a 2/2 plan. Two elementary schools to serve the north end of the district and two for the south end. After general areas are determined, we then look at access to thoroughfares which is a challenge in this district. After all available properties were reviewed based on this criteria as well as value, the property on Estates rose as the best available choice. The property that we currently own is acceptable in size to support an elementary school, but not optimal. We had anticipated sewer access at this site since the district had access at the high school site just down the street. Once sewer access was denied, the larger site became in the best interest of elementary school and the district has deemed that it is in the greater good of the community to build the final elementary on a site that will support the functions of the school as well as a safe entrance and exit to the site.
