Developer Airs Plan For Former Ames Middle School Site

The Ames Community School Board heard more from one developer interested in purchasing the former middle school site and also approved a separate purchase of land in north Ames along GW Carver Avenue Monday.

Breckenridge Land Acquisition/Aspen Heights wants to demolish the former middle school and hopes to build a 900 bedroom development consisting of Craftsman style town homes, houses and duplexes that management would rent by the room on three parcels of middle school property.

Each bedroom would have its own bathroom and walk-in closet. Charlie Vatterott, Aspen Heights vice president of development, said the community style serves a growing desire among college students who want to live in houses rather than dorms or apartment buildings.

The developer has offered $2.5 million for the 48 acres and will also demolish the old middle school making the value of the offer about $3.1 million said Tami Hicks, a Century 21 Broker, who represents the developer.

The board delayed a decision on the offer at a September meeting and plans to make a decision Nov. 5. Breckinridge said its offer will expire by Nov. 16.

Vatterott said, during a school board work session, that developers would expect the school district to maintain ownership of the property until it could be rezoned for the medium density they desire. The four and five-bedroom cottage units are the flagship of the company, Vatterott said.

Nearby homeowners are against the plan because they believe the higher density development would cause their land to flood, a resident Marilyn Clem, said during a break in the meeting.

Another resident Michael Petersen said during the school board's public forum, “This would destroy our quality of life as we presently experience it.”

Breckinridge's plan may not provide the school district with single-family student housing, but Hicks said it could open up other rental homes in the community that families could live in.

Dickson Jensen told the board that he was also interested in buying the former middle school site and and said his plan would require no rezoning. He was invited to discus his plans for the property at the school board's Oct. 22 meeting.

No one discussed what Heartland Development LLC planned to do with the 11-acre parcel of Ames School District property along GW Carver Avenue in the Somerset neighborhood. The company turned in the highest bid --- $425,000 --- on Sept. 7. The board approved that sale 6-1 Monday with board member David Putz casting the dissenting vote.

Putz said he's heard that an earlier board promised that its land, including the former middle school site, would be sold for single-family housing, though no one could find that in school board notes.

“Am I supposed to use, use as a deciding factor?” Putz asked.

Later in the meeting Board Member Bill Talbot said he thought the board's job was to figure out how to obtain the highest bid for its real estate.

“My attitude has no relevance when I am no longer on the board,” Talbot said. “That's what elections are about.”