New Lee High School moves forward
By STEVE CAMPBELL
Times Staff Writer
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One landowner unhappy at price, felt forced to sell
The Huntsville school board approved the purchase of 17 acres Thursday to expand the new Lee High School.
The board's action ends price negotiations with a landowner who was reluctant to accept previous offers by the board to buy his 8.9 acres along Meridian Street and Quietdale Drive.
For $1.2 million, the board bought David Hardwick's land, which allows access to five-lane Meridian.
The offer was up from the $950,000 offered May 30. Hardwick had said that offer was too low, and the board threatened to acquire the property through eminent domain.
Hardwick listed the value of his property at $1.6 million, according to Times archives.
In a phone interview after the meeting, Hardwick said he was "very unhappy" with the board's offer. He said he was effectively forced to take the $1.2 million or the board would acquire his land by eminent domain.
For another $1.6 million, the board bought 8.74 acres along Meridian just north of Oakwood Avenue from Dewey Brazelton and Charlie M. Smith Sr.
The combined tracts expand the current Lee campus to more than 51 acres and link the school to Meridian, allowing students to use the high school when construction begins this fall on the school's $42.5 million replacement.
Herbert Wheeler, finance director for Huntsville City Schools, said about $10 million of the construction costs are paid by TIF 4, the tax package approved by local leaders last fall.
Superintendent Ann Roy Moore said she hopes the new Lee will be ready for students in about two years. The current building will be torn down while saving the relatively new gym, she said.
The new campus will take up 235,000 square feet and be divided by a railroad track. Wheeler has said there are plans to build a $1.5 million pedestrian bridge over the tracks.
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