LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – The Jefferson County Board of Education will be asked next week to approve a $2.1 million purchase of 40 acres of property near the Parklands of Floyds Fork despite environmental and traffic concerns.
The 40-acre tract at 2605 Echo Trail, if bought, will be home to a new $32 million middle school for 1,000 students to help ease overcrowding in eastern Jefferson County.
The $2.1 million price tag on the land, currently owned by Long Run Creek Properties, includes the cost to build sewers at the site, according to a presentation included in board materials for Tuesday’s community forum. While Echo Trail has enough space to accommodate buses, Jefferson County Public Schools is working with Louisville Metro Public Works and state lawmakers for road and intersection improvements, according to the presentation.
The Kentucky Department of Education will need to sign off on the project before it can move forward, and JCPS will need to submit a school plan to the city for additional review, the presentation says.
The 40-acre site gives JCPS enough space to build another school if needed, according to the presentation.
A map of the proposed 40-acre site for the new JCPS middle school at Echo Trail.
The district expects to begin construction in the fall, with the school scheduled to open for the 2022-23 school year.
Opponents of building a new school near Floyds Fork worry that Echo Trail could not handle increased traffic and that the project puts the creek at risk of pollution.
“The increased sewer load and runoff from this development would pollute Floyds Fork, in my opinion,” Harrell Hurst, chairman of the Fisherville Area Neighborhood Association, said at a Jan. 16 public hearing on the potential land purchase.
But the district believes the project will have minimal environmental impact. The school will not be built in the Long Run Creek floodplain, and construction will not impact Floyds Fork downstream, according to Tuesday’s presentation.
Buildings and lots will be built on open, level ground to minimize tree removal at the site, and stormwater runoff from the parking lot will be filtered, the presentation says.
“Impact on streams and wetlands will be less than lowest threshold for required mitigation,” Tuesday’s presentation says.
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