Hamilton County commissioners on Wednesday approved the purchase of about 19 acres at the former Cigna Corp. facility at 7555 Goodwin Road, which includes an almost 100,000-square-foot building that leaders plan to transform into a new school.
"I was quite impressed with the condition of the facility and the potential for it," said Commissioner Steve Highlander, R-Ooltewah, who toured the building before the vote. "While we would like to build really large schools because they're more efficient, that would be a large school, and it would meet an immediate need when we get it repaired."
The county's 18.6 acre purchase, which has been in the works for several months, is part of a larger 95-acre site that Empire Communities, a privately-owned homebuilding company, is buying from Cigna. It encompasses a circular parking area and a 98,562-square-foot, single-story building with an open floor plan.
Hamilton County Director of Facilities Justin Witt said the new school would have capacity for 750 students and would sit across the street from East Brainerd Elementary School, which is over capacity and has a headcount of about 1,000 students. Witt said officials have considered using the new site for students in kindergarten through second or third grades, which would free up space at East Brainerd Elementary and allow that facility to serve the remaining elementary grades.
Witt estimated that renovating the Cigna facility would cost $15 million to $20 million in addition to the $8 million spent on purchasing the land. That's cheaper than the approximately $35 million it would cost to build a brand new school, which doesn't include acquiring property.
Through a deal negotiated between former Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger and Hamilton County Schools, the county has agreed to acquire the land and the school system's fund balance will finance the buildout of the facility, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp said.
During its regular meeting Wednesday, the County Commission voted 9-1 to purchase the property, with Commissioner Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista, voting no. Mackey said the county has way too many public schools, and he prefers bigger facilities.
"They've already indicated the school is going to be at capacity day one, which means shortly thereafter we'll build another school," Mackey told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "So we're compounding that issue of continuing to have way too many buildings and no apparent plan to address that question."
Commissioner Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, had similar concerns about long-term planning, noting that the county needs to know what it's going to do five years down the line if the new school ends up opening at or near capacity.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County commissioners to vote next week on Cigna land purchase)
"My business sense is, you always plan for growth, you always plan for the future and you quit shuffling kids around just to different facilities and rezoning," Eversole said. "I hope we're thinking of a permanent solution. I realize that sometimes you do have to Band-Aid something temporarily to get a permanent solution down the road, and I really hope we're looking at our planned growth."
In September, Wamp's office announced that the mayor and Superintendent Justin Robertson were forming a working group to assess the county's growing facilities crisis. The school district is facing $1 billion worth of needed repairs. That group met for the first time Tuesday, and Wamp said the committee will, over the coming months, develop a realistic set of priorities.
Wamp said he recognizes the project is not the ideal way to build a school with part on one side of the street and the remainder on the other, but the flipside is Empire Communities will construct an extraordinary neighborhood surrounding the new facility, he said, which could provide a model for future elementary schools.
"Back in the days of proverbial Mayberry, you walked to school," Wamp told commissioners. "You still do in a couple pockets in the county, and you will to this school."
Asked if the facility will be enough to accommodate growth in that area, Wamp told the Times Free Press in a phone call Wednesday that there aren't many other options in that part of town.
"This site is right in the heart of East Brainerd, where you've got residential development taking up just about every spare acre, let alone the type of ground necessary to build a new school," the mayor said. "This is not a part of the county where there's a lot of flexibility."
When it was constructed, East Brainerd Elementary School wasn't large enough to accommodate the concentration of residential growth in that area, Wamp said, but the available Cigna facility presents an opportunity for a unique public-private partnership.
"It's certainly not how I would've planned it," he said about the project. "It's not ideal, but I think it's a situation where hopefully we're beginning to learn ... even if it's more expensive, we need to think long-term, build schools for the future -- not just for the next two years, but for the next 30 years -- but in this case I think this is a passable a solution and one that comes with some upsides."
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @flavid_doyd.