JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (WDRB) -- Jeffersonville City Council members have voted against a request from Greater Clark County Schools to rezone a piece of property to relocate and rebuild one of its middle schools.

The district wanted to rezone 26 acres of land on Utica-Sellersburg Road and New Chapel Road to relocate and rebuild Parkview Middle School, about five miles northeast from its current location on Brigman Avenue, which is a roughly 15-minute drive.

Proposed site for new Parkview Middle School

The new proposed site for Parkview Middle School in Jeffersonville.

The acreage the school wanted to build on is currently zoned for single-family residential. In order for the land to be used for a school, it would need to be rezoned for institutional use. 

Jeffersonville City Council members on Monday voted against changing the proposed site's zoning ordinance 5-2, meaning the district will not build a new middle school on the proposed site.

Council and many neighbors of the proposed site expressed concerns about traffic already being an issue on the two-lane roads.

"Buses are going to get backed up, cars can't pass anything because the lanes are too narrow, and you're really going to create a bottleneck for those residents. And God forbid there's an emergency and somebody needs to get out of there to get to a hospital or somebody needs to get to them," said resident Ed Lieblick.

The purchase agreement for the district and current developer was contingent on the zoning ordinance changing. It is zoned for single-family homes, which council members and other Jeffersonville residents thought was best use of the land.

"There's all these people looking for housing, I think a housing development of 87 houses would help more families find home. We're building all these new factories, warehouses," said Jeffersonville resident Maxwell Malone.

GCCS Superintendent Mark Laughner said the district has been looking for land for about eight months.

The developer, who currently owns the 26 acres of land, said he was pursued by the school district several times for the land. He said after consideration, he agreed with the district that the community would benefit more from a new school.

Parkview Middle School currently sits on just over 11 acres, compared to the 26 acres of land GCCS wanted to build on. Laughner said last week during a community meeting that relocating the school is the best option because of its size. 

"If we tried to build a new school on the Parkview site, I've talked to a couple different architects about that, they've looked at the site. Basically, what they said is, it would be virtually impossible," Laughner said.

Laughner said Monday night that he respects the city's decision and that it will not keep the district from finding a new site.

"We'll wake up tomorrow and start looking for new property," Laughner said. "We still feel strongly as a school district that we need to find a new location for the new middle school and we'll start that process tomorrow morning."

If the land were rezoned and a new school built, officials said it would be two stories and face Utica-Sellersburg Road. A track, football field, and tennis courts would sit behind the school. Parking would have been in front of the school and a bus lane would have been behind the building.

Proposed layout for new Parkview Middle School

GCCS' tentative timeline was to begin construction in late 2024 or early 2025. Construction would finish in 2027. 

The new middle school project would be in addition to an existing project to rebuild two GCCS elementary schools, without raising the tax rate.

The elementary school project would create larger buildings at Wilson Elementary and Jonathan Jennings Elementary, allowing the space to merge Pleasant Ridge and Thomas Jefferson Elementary schools to the two new buildings.

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