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Show Page seventeen Old schools mar developers plans by Tom Horton Enterprise Staff Writer Old school buildings are get- ting bad marks these days. Just about everyone involved in Salt Lake City land dev- elopment is pointing to them as blemishes in the otherwise smooth commercial and residential landscape. City planner Allen Johnson: Theyre really white elephants, in a lot of cases. They just dont fit in once the school function is gone. Salt Lake School District buildings and grounds chief A converted Carl Child: school can be quite an asset, if you have a decade or so to figure out what its good for. Mayor Ted Wilson: A school is put up for sale and the residents cringe, waiting to see whats going to happen to their neighborhood. came through that of the Sumner school in central city, which Salt Lake City has razed and intends to turn into high-ris- e senior citizen housing. That projects success is still undetermined, however, and the land will revert back to the district if the city backs out. The old Irving Junior High in Sugarhouse has turned into a behemoth for one buyer, Richardson Associates, which tried to form an office-sp- a complex there, but failed. to The propertys been another group which is trying to develop a similar concept. re-so- ld A prime example concerned wishes things would go as smoothly as they did with the Curtis School, next to an east bench shopping center. Mountain Bell paid cash for the building and converted it into a training center, quiet and unobtrusive, which has fit right into the residential neighborEveryone Children no longer play at the Lincoln school at 13th South and State Street . Developers, planners and politicians agree old schools have few good uses, and often become elephants . white hood. Realtor Bill Healy: Every-tim- e I try to do something with it (recently-purchase- d Lincoln School) somebody says No, you cant do that. Im begging for somebody to tell me what I can do with it. School building evolution follows a pattern, according to Johnson, that has become very evident in Salt Lake City during the last generation. A young population inhabits an area, has kids, and the school district builds a school to educate them. In a period of time, maybe a generation or so, the kids are gone and not many new ones show up to replace them. The neighborhood is older, the residents are older, and theres no more need for a school, so it's closed. A number of contradictions That leaves a big, empty building, a playground or athletic field. . . and a number of contradictions. The big building, no longer a school, doesnt fit into the neighborhood. The playground fits into the neighborhood, but is not compatible with the building. To top it off, the whole package must somehow produce revenue if anyone is expected to buy it. Once a building has become too costly to maintain, or is improperly located, we have to dispose of it as soon as says reasonably possible, Child. Maintenance costs and damage from vandalism makes continued ownership absolutely impossible for us. When a Salt Lake City school is put on the auction block, it is first offered to public agencies to see if a public use for it can be found. Child recalls only one case when an agency The Oquirrh School is another success story, finally finding a function as an office building after enough time lapsed that the surrounding area changed from residential to commercial use, and the building became marketable. The Lincoln School has been a thorn in the side of two different buyers, having a business-lik- e front on State e park-lika Street, and posterior in a residential neighborhood. Potential developers cant make the two functions meld, understandably. Look for more of the same in the near future, Child says. Of three schools in older neighborhoods, Douglas, Webster and Roosevelt, two will be declared surplus be- fore long. Child sees no handy uses apparent for whichever two get the axe. Presently the Jefferson School, closed and rapidly being absorbed into the downtown commercial district. awaits a school board decision about its future. Every school is a park "Some local people abandoned think school should be a park, he adds, but local government generally doesnt have the money to buy and develop a park every time a school is turned loose. The private section is always exerting pressure to put the property into a revenue-producin- g function, and local every government isn't satisfied less its on the tax rolls. un- Bill Healy, owner of Heart- land Realty, is trying to put the old Lincoln School on the tax rolls, and is finding the The playproject taxing. ground portion isnt zoned to permit the parking he needs to turn the school into office space. The residents around Edith Avenue seem to want me to build them a baseball diamond, keeping the building vacant and maintain both so they can have things just as they are, he moans. Healy has been negotiating with city officials and claims they support his project but wont help him get zoning changed. "Ted Wilson is acting more like the mayor of Edith Avenue than the mayor of Salt Lake City, he adds. Bill Healy is listening for things he wants to hear and ignoring the rest, responds Wilson. "There is simply no way we will allow development of that site without some kind of buffer between it and the neighborhood. Planner Johnson fears the kind of zoning Healy wants would permit inappropriate uses in If we rezonc, the future. to whats keep the owner from selling it to a junkyard proprietor, he asks. And so it goes . . . the quick transition from neighborhood blessing to neighborhood blight. That pattern is so old in parts of the country, that school planners have begun designing schools to be used as offices after the school function is outmoded. Boston, New York and Chicago have all built high-ris- e schools with rooftop playgrounds. When the area becomes elderly and urbanized and the school is closed, the building is easily converted to office space. In a few cases, offices and classrooms have occupied the building simultaneously. Locally, that may happen soon, even though many residents dont consider Salt Lake City in the same breath with New York or Chicago. Bryant Junior High needs to be replaced in the next few years, says Child, and is in one of those elderly, neighborhoods. He says the school slowly-comercializi- ng board has already given thought to building a high-ris- e school, realizing full well that some people may have a hard time living with that, at first. |