Albany County School District No. 1 will sell an abandoned school property known as Old Slade to housing advocates who want to build more than 30 homes on the site.
The sale is officially between the school district and the city government, which plans to pass the property to the Albany County Housing & Land Trust, a nonprofit entity.
During a meeting Wednesday, the school board agreed to sell Old Slade to the city for $200,000 less than its appraised value. Housing advocates said securing the land for a lower price will keep down the cost of those eventual homes.
School Board Trustee Nate Martin pushed for the discounted sale.
“When we’re facing real community-wide problems that are holistic in nature, that don’t respect boundaries, we can’t afford to sit back in our silo and say we’re not going to participate,” he said.
The 3.2-acre property was appraised at $725,000, but city leaders said they would have to abandon the project at that price. The school board ultimately agreed to offload it for just $525,000.
The final vote was 7 to 2 in favor of the sale.
Some trustees had argued the school board has a fiduciary duty to the schools, which required them to seek out the best possible deal. The money from the sale of Old Slade will go back into other school facilities, and the $200,000 discount means $200,000 less for that purpose.
“I am back and forth, but I really feel heavily the weight of fiduciary responsibility to the district,” said Trustee Janice Marshall, who ultimately cast one of the two “no” votes.
Trustee Carrie Murthy supported the discount, arguing it was not only good for the community, but good for the schools, too. She said high home prices and a lack of homes had kept teachers from taking jobs in Laramie. Those same factors have pushed Laramie teachers to leave for more affordable pastures.
“We have the opportunity to invest in something that solves a critical problem: housing for the people who teach our kids,” Murthy said. “The fact is housing is a barrier to the quality of education our students receive.”
The discount will be passed on to the eventual homeowners when it’s reflected in the price tag down the line. The district’s discount will also reserve some of those homes for teachers or other employees of the school district, though details on that exchange have not been made official.
The city plans to pass the property to the local housing trust, which will see the homes built and use deed restrictions to keep them affordable to young professionals.
There’s no official date for when construction will begin, but housing advocates hope to see new homes sometime next year.
