Sep 13, 2005 3 min read

It’s baffling to understand why the Laurel Highlands School Board would become an 11th-hour suitor for purchasing the property on which the former Lemon Wood Acres public housing project sat. But that’s exactly what happened last week, when LH Superintendent Ronald Sheba fired off a fax to Fayette County Housing Authority Executive Director Thomas L. Harkless, saying Sheba’s board wanted to discuss acquiring the property and putting it to an unspecified valuable use. On the surface, the LH interest makes some sense. The school district’s 60-acre senior high school complex adjoins the 22.81-acre Lemon Wood Acres site, so the acquisition would provide elbow room. It could also accommodate any future expansion of the current school complex, including parking, and might even give LH the chance to build a football field on terra firma instead of on an unstable hillside.

Acquisition by LH would also keep additional public housing from being built on the site, as would happen under the FCHA’s proposal to construct 55 mixed-income housing units in the swanky-named Laurel Highlands Estates. That project is estimated to cost $14 million, but the board has twice been divided on whether to proceed, with Chairwoman Angela M. Zimmerlink and Beverly Beal raising the greatest objections, which center on need and finances.

The authority’s current 16.6 percent vacancy rate, which means that 170 units are currently available for occupancy, does not seem to inspire confidence in any costly rebuilding plan, especially one that could chew up authority financial resources. But Harkless and key staffers firmly believe that such makeovers are the best solution to the authority’s perpetual vacancy problem, pointing to its current high proportion of row housing, a failed concept.

That’s a separate debate, but the late-coming LH proposal isn’t fair to the FCHA board. The demolition of Lemon Wood Acres was well-documented, and even if school board members didn’t see the stories and photographs on newspaper front pages, all they had to do is look out the front door of the senior high school to see what was happening. Why they would wait until now to make what FCHA board member William “Trip” Radcliffe correctly called a “nebulous” proposal is a great mystery.

The Lemon Wood Acres land is assessed at $60,970, an amount the free-spending LH board could probably find underneath its proverbial sofa cushions. Even if, as Harkless explained, the deal could best be consummated via a land swap, that option might be worth exploring, particularly if the surrounding neighborhood doesn’t want Laurel Highlands Estates.

Another wrinkle comes from the fact that the LH board has never taken any official action on its supposed interest in acquiring the land. Nor has any LH representative ever approached the FCHA at any of its public meetings to propose a plan. Nonetheless, Zimmerlink, while lamenting LH’s tardiness in coming to the table, said a meeting would be arranged.

While we agree that LH waited too long to express its interest, we’ll say for now, “Better late than never,” and urge the FCHA to give strong consideration to any fair offer.