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NACS donates parcels for Union Chapel Trail; county provides $25,000 to connect sidewalks
Summary
Board explained and affirmed its donation of parcels to Allen County for the Union Chapel Trail, describing alternative scenarios and why donation was selected as the least expensive and safest option for students and county taxpayers.
Mr. Barker described the board’s decision to donate two parcels to Allen County for the Union Chapel Trail right-of-way and the rationale behind that course of action.
He said donating the parcels places the trail farther from Union Chapel Road, which the administration judged to be the safest alignment for students and pedestrians walking to school. Mr. Barker said the district had appraisals that valued the parcels at $63,770 and that, instead of selling the land for that amount, NACS donated the parcels. Allen County agreed to donate $25,000 back to the district to connect the trail to the district’s sidewalk system.
Mr. Barker reviewed alternatives the district considered: selling the parcels to the county (which would have been a similar outcome but would have made NACS the first municipality in Allen County to sell land for a county trail instead of donating) and refusing to cooperate (which, he said, would have forced the county to build the trail in the normal right-of-way closer to the road, at a higher taxpayer cost and without the $25,000 connection payment). He told trustees county construction in the normal right-of-way would have increased taxpayer costs by roughly $600,000 because of a large ditch the county would have had to address and because the chosen alignment away from the road is less expensive to build.
Mr. Barker also said Allen County had previously waived normal planning rules for NACS during construction of the Administration Center and that, if the county had not waived those rules, the district might have been required to build and pay for at least some trail segments itself. He said the board’s unanimous decision to donate the two parcels reflected the district’s intent to prioritize student safety and minimize overall taxpayer cost.
No formal motion text appears verbatim in the record excerpt provided here, but Mr. Barker said the board unanimously agreed to the donation with support from senior leadership, including Mr. Basham and Dr. Bidding.
