The MOU was approved in November by the park board and is before Troy City Council. The board of education will review and act on the MOU once it has been received from the city, school officials said.
Schools Superintendent Chris Piper said the land transfers are important to the overall construction plan. It includes building new schools on the current Hook Elementary School and Cookson Elementary School sites. For those locations to work for planned larger school buildings, the district will need city park land located adjacent to both school sites, Piper said.
“We are happy to have such a great working relationship with the city of Troy. They have been, and will be, a key component of this building process. We look forward to continuing to work with the city throughout the building project,” he said.
Once all details are worked out, an interagency operating agreement for actual land transfers will be considered by the parties.
Among the proposed MOU provisions are for:
The city to convey to the schools by Dec. 31, 2024, the Hook and Campbell park properties, totaling approximately 8.25 acres; to schedule and manage any new ballfields constructed by the schools; and to draft the interagency operating agreement and maintenance responsibilities of the new ballfield. Campbell Park is next to Cookson school.
The schools would provide four to six youth-sized ballfields including backstops on school properties including the new elementary schools at the Cookson and Hook school sites, the new elementary at the McKaig/Arthur Road site and at the middle school site off Swailes Road.
The schools would also remediate and demolish the Van Cleve, Heywood and Kyle school buildings and convey vacant property to the city in shovel-ready condition by the end of 2027. They also would agree to allow the city to use the ballfields identified in the MOU.
If all parties agree to the MOU, they then will negotiate final, binding agreements.
For the city, the four to six ballfields outlined in the MOU would replace four fields that will be lost with the transfer of the Hook and Campbell park properties, said Patrick Titterington, city service and safety director.
Plans have not been made for the three sites where the school buildings will be removed, he said. However, he said, the city “envisions” that land once transferred to the city would be transferred by council to the Community Improvement Corporation.
The CIC would work toward those properties’ future based on economic development needs and the city comprehensive plan.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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