- January 15, 2025
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Is the Flagler County School Board’s Plantation Bay property unnecessary for education use?
David Haas, a representative of developer ICI Homes is betting the district will never build a school on the site. Haas appeared before the board during a workshop April 19 offering to buy the school’s 26-acre property as well as the county’s adjacent 30-acre property for the appraised price.
He said the developer would pay cash and provided an unusual commitment.
“If you decide you need it for a school within the next two years, we’ll donate it to you free of charge. We don’t think you’re going to build a school there.”
DAVID HAAS, ICI Homes
“If you decide you need it for a school within the next two years, we’ll donate it to you free of charge. We don’t think you’re going to build a school there,” he said.
The School Board has owned the property for 37 years. Patty Bott, the school district’s coordinator of planning and intergovernmental relations, said there are not many students living in the vicinity of the site.
Haas also questioned the wetlands data the district had.
“The wetlands are very deep,” he said. You would need to dredge the muck and refill. The cost to mitigate would be off the charts.”
Board member Colleen Conklin asked about a trade.
“We need land,” she said. “We don’t have many sites left.”
Haas said ICI would prefer to buy the land outright.
“We think it will be the neatest cleanest way,” he said.
The board would need to determine the land is unnecessary for education in order to sell.