Aldermen, GMSD OK new land exchange
Germantown meeting has shouting, finger-pointing
A new three-way land exchange agreement that gives the city of Germantown space for a water tower and the school district a softball field is headed to the suburb’s school board. The agreement was narrowly approved during a heated meeting in which aldermen shouted at each other from the dais and called one another liars.
Germantown’s board of mayor and aldermen approved a revised land exchange agreement and revised land-use agreement Monday night, both in a 3-2 vote. The agreement will now go to the Germantown Municipal School District board for consideration on March 2.
The three-way trade would see four pieces of land exchanged between the city, the school district and developer John Duke, who is in the early stages of developing a single-family home subdivision near Forest Hill Elementary.
Debate during Monday’s meeting was confrontational and, at times, personal.
Aldermen Forrest Owens, Rocky Janda and Mary Anne Gibson, who voted for the land exchange, said they thought the agreement was superior to one previously passed by the board.
Meanwhile, Aldermen Scott Sanders and Dean Massey, who voted against the agreement, voiced concerns about why a previously approved agreement had not been sent to the school board for a vote. They also cited a lack of transparency during land exchange negotiations.
“I am concerned, as I stated in January with the original agreement, that all these negotiations went on over a period of 12 months without your aldermen being involved,” Sanders said to the mayor and city officials.
Massey accused the city administration of disregarding the January vote and of making secret backroom deals going back years before accusing Owens, Janda and Gibson of receiving orders on how to vote before the meetings.
Owens interjected to say that Massey was lying, which prompted Massey to call Owens a liar. Owens then threw his glasses down in apparent frustration and the two men continued to shout “you're a liar” at one another until the mayor turned their microphones off and tried to restore order to the meeting.
The two men later apologized for losing their tempers, though Massey appeared to taunt Owens during a later round of comments, which was filled with interjections, procedural bickering and a request to suspend meeting rules.
Details and history of the deal
The deal approved Monday expands upon a previous land exchange agreement that involved the city and school district. That exchange, approved by a 3-2 vote in January, called for the city to give most of Houston Levee Park to the school district in exchange for 15 acres near Forest Hill Elementary.
Under the new deal, the school district will still get 21.8 acres of Houston Levee Park, giving Houston High School's softball team a permanent field. It also gives the school room to build additional parking and athletic facilities that will be needed in the future, including for lacrosse. The city will retain three acres in the southwest corner of the park to ensure public access to the greenway.
The city will receive 12 acres of land to the east of Forest Hill Elementary from the school district, which is intended to be preserved as a natural area. A clause in the land use agreement allows for the land to be transferred back to the school district at no cost if the district experiences “growth above maximum capacity at the elementary and middle school grade bands on a district-wide basis.”
The city will also receive five acres from Duke, which is intended to house a future elevated water tower. City staff said adjacent land at the north end of the subdivision could become a park as the project moves through city approval processes.
Assistant city administrator Jason Huisman said the agreement paves the way for a new water tower, which the public works department has been pressing for for decades and allows the high school room for future expansion.
“This agreement is a huge win for the people who live, work and play in our city,” he said.
The future water tower would be near the railroad tracks on the north side of the 72-home Wilder Planned Development, along Old Poplar Pike east of Forest Hill Irene Road.
The new proposed location would place the water tower farther away from the school than the area proposed as a possible water tower location in the initial land exchange agreement.
Duke — a partner at Taylor Land Investors, which owns the property the subdivision is proposed to be built on — will receive three acres of land to the east of Forest Hill Elementary, south of his subdivision, from the school district. The land is currently zoned for residential estate use and will have to be rezoned residential to accommodate the lot size Duke has planned for the development.
Aldermen comments
In a testy executive session before the meeting, the mayor turned off Massey's microphone for “raising his voice” and Massey and Janda leaned across Owens to snap at one another. During the session, city attorney Mac Mccarroll said the land exchange approved by the board of mayor and aldermen in January was not binding because it had not also been approved by the school board.
Sanders raised the point again during the regular meeting.
“I'm disappointed,” he said. “I do not believe your administration had the authority to not go ahead and send that over to the school board for their consideration.”
He said he did think the revised agreement provided a better potential location for a water tower but urged school board members not to approve the land swap.
Janda and Gibson both said they thought the proposal on the table Monday was superior to the one they had approved previously, comments Owens echoed.
“It is a better agreement for the neighborhood, it is a better agreement for the city and it is a better agreement for the school,” he said. “I think it's a better location for the proposed tower, for all parties and it's a better land swap.”
No one spoke about the land exchange during public comment.
Corinne Kennedy is a reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne. Kennedy@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @Corinneskennedy