Board takes title to h.s. tract
JACKSON — The Board of Education has taken over the title to the 154-acre property on which it will build the district’s new high school.
The property is off North Hope Chapel Road near its intersection with Route 528. In January 2002, voters approved the building of a 1,900-student high school on that site. The school is slated to open in September 2005. The tract is owned by the Clayton family.
According to a press release from the school district, taking title to the land will allow the district to begin work to ready the site for construction. The board has already put the construction of the school out to bid and expects to award construction contracts at the beginning of May.
The title to the property was earned after the district filed for condemnation on the property. This approach was necessary because of a difference of opinion over the sale price of the land.
To protect taxpayers, school districts in New Jersey are bound by law to purchase land only after a price for that land is determined through a condemnation appraisal, according to the press release.
Due to zoning changes in that area over the last few years, the district and the landowners had a difference of opinion on which zoning status that appraisal should be based, according to the press release.
"There was no question about whether the district would get the land, but about the appropriate price of the land," said district Business Administrator Gregory J. Brennan. "Now an independent third party — in this case a judge — will determine that price."