Lexington-Richland 5 moves to sell land it spent $1.2m on for SC school but never built
After more than a decade, Lexington-Richland 5 is officially throwing in the towel on its plans to build a school on Derrick Pond Road.
The school board voted Monday to begin the process of selling the 47-acre site near Mount Vernon Church Road. The school district purchased the site in 2010 for a new Chapin-area school and ultimately spent $1.2 million on the project but never built the school.
Board members authorized district staff to seek an appraisal on the value of the land before the district puts the property up for sale, “contingent upon a sales price greater than the appraised value.” The market value of the land is currently $480,800, according to Richland County GIS data.
The school district bought the land in 2010 for $592,750. The district spent at least $550,000 on design and construction plans, according to documents previously reviewed by The State, and at least $70,384 on inspections, technology and professional services.
But final building plans ultimately depended on a traffic review by Richland County. In December 2010, the Richland County Development Review Team denied the district’s plans because the property did not have primary access from a major road. The property sits on a narrow gravel road in the White Rock area just south of Interstate 26, tucked between a wall of trees and the wide lawn of a neighboring home.
The district worked on an agreement with neighboring property owners that would have given the Derrick Pond site access to Mount Vernon Church Road, but that plan ultimately fell through when the property owners walked away.
For the past decade, the wooded area has sat undeveloped as the district shifted $27 million from Derrick Pond to other projects approved in a 2008 referendum. Plans to improve overcrowding in the Chapin school area later shifted to construction of Piney Woods Elementary School on Amicks Ferry Road, which started classes this fall.
At the same time, Lexington-Richland 5 will move to sell the old site of Chapin High School at 107 Columbia Ave. The 7-acre site in downtown Chapin was appraised at $1.3 million in 2019, but the district will seek a new appraisal before the site goes on the market.
Some board members asked if the town of Chapin might be able to make use of the former school, and also asked to look into the possibility of placing a marker at the site to honor the community’s memories of the old Chapin High School.
This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 2:35 PM.
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