‘Bulldozers are digging.’ Neighbors ask that new Tates Creek High construction halt.

Sara Grant, who lives on Crimson King Court behind Tates Creek High School, said Monday that she and her neighbors have asked that construction on the new high school building be suspended.

Grant said she and her neighbors on Crimson King Court, Coldstream Court, and Pimlico Parkway have just learned the plans for the new Tates Creek High School and want construction suspended until residents can weigh in.

Construction is set to begin this summer, Fayette County Public Schools district officials have said. Some preliminary work is happening now. Officials said the $88 million project is unique because the available land on the Tates Creek campus allows the district to construct a new building on the existing site.

The new school building, Grant said, is planned “to sit right up against the edge of our street.”

Drastically more so than the existing building, there will be no buffer between the school and the neighborhood, she said.

“The construction is set to go all the way down to the creek which will drastically affect our neighborhood,” Grant said in an email to the Herald-Leader Monday. “ None of the neighbors that I’ve spoken with had any idea the extent of this construction and how it will affect us. I have been trying to communicate with the Fayette County Public Schools at Central Office to have them suspend this construction until all neighbors have a chance to look at the plans and weigh in on it. The bulldozers are digging as I compose this email.”

A few weeks ago, another neighbor Nancy Jo Kemper, a former Congressional candidate, said she was preparing a petition for neighbors to sign to express concerns about the effects of the construction of the new building. Board chair Stephanie Spires said Monday she had received it.

Neighbors Mark Cornelison and his wife Amy Wallot wrote school board members on Monday prior to a planning meeting.

“How close to the property line are they building?” the email said. “How much more traffic will be coming through?... When is the building starting? Where is the building going to go?”

“So many questions and no answers. So, not only is it surprising and scary, but disappointing. Disappointing that after we’ve been good neighbors for more than 20 years, Tates Creek is not being a good neighbor to us,” the couple said. “Absolutely no attempt was made at outreach to the neighbors.”

District spokeswoman Lisa Defendall said Monday night that district officials have been publicly discussing the Tates Creek High School project since before 2018 and there have been multiple news articles and television news stories detailing the evolution of the proposal from renovation to a new building.

Plans showing that the new building would be constructed behind the existing high school were unveiled in August of 2019, posted publicly on the district website, and covered by the media, she said.

Deffendall said the district’s top priority is providing a state-of-the-art learning environment for Tates Creek High School students and officials intend to maintain the construction timeline.

“The design team, which includes landscape architects and civil engineers, has taken all necessary steps to ensure the project meets regulatory requirements,” Deffendall said. No construction is taking place in the flood plain and there will be no impact on the creek. Water runoff from the new building will be diverted to a retention basin on the district’s property, and channeled underground to another storm water sewer, she said.

School officials and the design team are meeting with area residents on March 24 to address their concerns, Deffendall said.

But Grant said a planned March 24 meeting is “too late.”

“They’ve already destroyed all these old trees up on the hill which is a huge loss,” Grant said in an interview Monday. “They are excavating the hill. They are bulldozing it right now. We have no idea how this is going to affect us.”

“We really are concerned that there was no consideration of this neighborhood before they started to do this,” Grant said. “Why do we have to wait until the 24th to talk to them?”

This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 4:26 PM.