February 28 may become a day that lives in infamy for St. Mary's County. With the Board of Education desperate for a reasonable school site in the Leonardtown High School District, on February 28 the Planning Commission decided to give the Wildewood developer 4.28 homes per acre on 357 additional acres in exchange for 30 acres for a school site. Let's see, that's 357 acres X 4.28 homes per acre = 1527 potential new homes in addition to the approximately 1,200 homes yet to be built in Wildewood. Using the school system's own numbers, we find that every new home in St. Mary's County generates an average of .215 elementary school students per home. OK, 1527 X .215 = 328 elementary students. It also generates, .107 middle school students (163) and .151 high school students (230). Now the elementary school site may provide seats for the 328 elementary students, but it will not provide seats for the 163 middle school students and the 230 high school students. All we need is 16 trailers for those seats @ $60,000 per trailer (assuming the State has some available) or $960,000. That's not $960,000 for school construction, that's $960,000 for temporary quarters for the students. Of course, we are building an elementary school for the students we already have, not to care for ones we don't have yet.

Wildewood will also be giving an additional 20 acres. Quoting from the letter of understanding signed by the Board of Education, “Wildewood will donate to the County an additional twenty (20) acres” “The subject twenty (20) acre site is to be developed by the County for public use, compatible with residential, such as a public park, open space, library, life/safety, recreational uses.” Here's the interesting part of that gift, “The twenty (20) acre site . . shall count towards the developed recreational requirements imposed on the PUD., AND (emphasis mine) there shall be a credit for the total land donation of approximately fifty (50) acres . . towards the PUD open space and recreational land requirements.” The developer gets to develop an additional 50 acres which would have been open space under the existing PUD, and an additional 20 acres which would have been developed recreational facilities. With these new approvals, those 70 acres which would have been open space or developed recreational facilities will be additional housing. This for 50 acres of land.

But wait! That's not all! He also gets to develop the number of homes he could have built on the 50 acres somewhere else in the PUD. “The associated gross housing density for the donated land would be credited for use within the PUD and the additional properties from which the land was donated (i.e., 4.28 dwellings times 50 acres equals 214 density units.”

Steven B. Alloy, President of Wildewood Residential LLC, must be laughing his way to the bank when he considers this agreement. For buried in the letter of understanding between the school system and Wildewood Residential LLC is a statement that “There shall be no moratoriums pending or threatened which would prohibit or restrict the continued development of the existing PUD as outlined in the 1991 PUD agreement at a density of 4.28 dwelling units per acre,”

What does this mean? Does it mean that if the County needs to put a moratorium on building permits to slow growth until schools catch up, such a moratorium won't b e effective in Wildewood? Does it mean that no matter how crowded Leonardtown High School becomes, building in Wildewood will continue? What a competitive advantage that would be! Well, it would be a competitive advantage until people find out how over crowded Leonardtown High School is. Then . . .

Some parents are already wondering if they should move their children from Leonardtown to Great Mills, this despite all the hoopla about problems at Great Mills. Others are trying to find a suitable private school. And some have decided to home school their children, and not just for reasons of religious beliefs.

At best, the land in Wildewood is a stop gap “solution” which will cause more total school students (726) than it will provide seats for (535). Of course, the school system could build a 719 student two story elementary school on the site. Then we would about break even on the number of students, if not the grade level of their schools. That would add $300,000 or so for architect's fees to the cost of the new school, but it's cheaper than $900,000 for relocatables.

There was a lot of rhetoric at the Board of Education's school site acquisition review on February 23 about two story, 719 student elementary schools. No one tried to say they are better than a one story, 535 student building, just that a 719 student school might be necessary, and there are things which can be done to make the building “more acceptable.” Among those things are having a second story administrator and having a school within a school, i.e. 350 primary students on the first floor and grades 3 - 5 on the second. Getting behind in building schools is the pits. It affects the education of children for years to come, especially if we decide to go ahead with a 719 student elementary school.

So that's where we are. If the Board of County Commissioners approves the additional 357 acres for addition to the Wildewood PUD, it takes away 20 acres of planned developed recreational facilities from the current PUD, and gives the developer the houses he would have built on the 50 acres as well as the higher density for the 357 acres (4.28 houses per acres vs. one house per 5 acres. Somebody please tell me, why is it that we can't even seem to build an elementary school without giving away more than we get?