Camas School District sells surplus land to Primelan Properties for

Land sales happen all the time, especially in areas growing as rapidly as Clark County in Southwest Washington. Residential building there is falling right in line with the rest of the Portland metro area, as new home construction continues at a steady pace and home prices keep on rising.

Clark County itself is one of the fastest-growing counties in Washington. According to the Clark County Department of Assessment, the population stands at more than 383,300 and continues to grow. By 2025, it is expected that between 474,000 and 621,700 people may live in the area.

So, it's not surprising that Primelan Properties Land Development Co. bought 48 acres of land just east of the Lacamas Summit neighborhood in Camas.

What sets this land sale apart from others, however, is that the company bought it from Camas School District.

Primelan has plans to build a residential community called Millshore Downs on the land it purchased for $14 million from the Camas School District, the entire stock of the district's surplus land.

But why would a school district sell property that could potentially be used for expansion, in a county slated for such rapid growth?

Mike Nerland, superintendent of Camas School District, said it has to do with allocating funds to best serve its current needs.

The school district is obligated to its patrons to be good stewards of their money, he said. In this case, the proceeds have to go back into capital projects, and we owe it to our constituents to give them that capital.

The state of Washington has legislative rules that determine what a school district can and can't do with the money it receives from the sale of its property. After going through a process of determining land as surplus, the district must then put out a call for bids. Money generated from the sale must go into a capital projects fund.

It's not common for school districts to sell, said Gary Sanders, president of Primelan Properties. They have to go through a process to determine excess property, and in fact (Camas School District) is looking to expand and make some land purchases. They have designs on four or five different sites for schools that they are going to be purchasing in the future.

The Millshore Downs site was originally purchased for the construction of Camas High School, but the district found that it wasn't conducive to building because of a slope and other development issues. Camas High School ended up being built in 2002 a mile away from the Millshore Downs site on land the district deemed more suitable.

Sanders said that the land's proximity to Camas High School was just one factor in its desire to purchase the property. It was in Camas, one of the hottest markets for residential real estate, and Clark County is fast growing, said Sanders. Looking at the land itself, it's a great piece.

Nerland said selling the surplus land will enable Camas School District to look for new and more appropriate school sites as Clark County continues to grow. He said the school board is actively looking for new school sites, but at this time the school board has not entered into any purchase agreements.

Tim Merlino is chief fiscal officer for Educational Service District 112, which provides support services to 30 school districts and 23 private schools in Southwest Washington. He said that school districts rarely have surplus land to sell.

Most districts don't have any land to give away, he said. It could be that they don't need it. Some of these districts, at some point you max out on the number of kids you have. That might not be the case in Camas, but if you don't need it and the price is good, then it's time to sell.

Another reason school districts sell surplus land, Merlino said, is that they already own property that better suits their needs.

Reg Martinson, facilities director at Evergreen School District - another district located in Clark County - said that's exactly the case in Vancouver. Evergreen owns three parcels of property that the school board has declared surplus. One parcel, an 8.2-acre plot near 117th and 70th streets, was sold to TMT Development Co., which plans to develop buildings for commercial use.

It's a parcel that fronts on a state highway, and we rebuilt the school on the backside of that site, said Martinson. It is an elementary school set back 400 to 500 feet from the highway.

The other two parcels are 12.2 acres and 9 acres.

The (decision to declare them surplus) was based on analysis that focused on the geographical distribution of school sites, said Martinson. The parcels that we (declared surplus) did not fit the future geographical need for schools.

The school district is no stranger to selling surplus land. Just last year, Evergreen was in negotiations with Clark College to sell 10 acres of a 60-acre parcel, with plans to co-locate a new high school with the community college's branch campus. The deal, however, fell through when the college chose a different site.

That land had been purchased several years ago for an elementary school, but we ended up building the school further west, closer to the center of the attendance area it's serving, he said.

I think where school districts have the capital resources to do so, they want to buy the land as early as they can, said Martinson. In rapidly growing school districts such as Evergreen, we haven't had that capital to land-bank. All resources have gone to expansion.

Copyright 2005 Dolan Media Newswires
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.