Somerset School Site Going, Going Gone

The Board will auction off an 11-acre parcel of undeveloped land in the Somerset neighborhood to the highest bidder Friday.

The board voted to sell the land along George Washington Carver Avenue rather than save it for the site of a future school.

Anyone who wants to participate in the auction needs to register by 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the district's . The letter of registration needs to include the person's name, contact information and a letter from a bank proving funds are available.

The minimum bid is set at $250,000. The land will go to the highest bidder.

Before the deal is done, the board will set a public hearing on the offer and the school board will have to vote to approve the bid before the sale goes through.

The parcel has been designated as a school site since Somerset was planned in north Ames in the 1990s. Currently the parcel is zoned as

Ray Anderson, Ames City planner, has said a developer could build a net of eight dwelling units per acre in that zone. That doesn't mean 88 units would fit on the property because other requirements like setbacks, streets and more would take up some space. Any changes to the land would have to be approved by the city since it's currently planned as a school for the Somerset development.

The land is being offered “as-is.”