Friday, Jun. 27, 2008
School Board Discusses Carillon’s Impact
Planned Project Could Start Adding 65-85 Students a Year by 2010
By Nicholas Sakelaris
Staff Writer
The Carillon project would add 65 to 85 students a year to the Carroll school district, the developer’s preliminary demographic numbers indicate.
If the 285-acre project gets approval from the City Council this summer, construction could start later this year, and the first houses could be ready by the end of 2009, said Jeff Kennemer, senior project manager for Hines.
That means children from there would start attending school in 2010. The mixed-use project would span from the northeast corner of White Chapel Boulevard and Texas 114 to Carroll Avenue and includes thousands of square feet of retail, office, a hotel and a performing arts center.
Hines presented its plans for Carillon to the Carroll school board, members of the Southlake City Council and Carroll’s Long-range Facility Planning Committee on Tuesday.
Hines took data from the district’s demographic study, which shows that the average Southlake home has 0.88 school-age students, and multiplied that by the 455 housing units planned in the project.
That comes out to about 400 students over five years as the project builds out, Kennemer said.
"Our numbers are very similar to the ones [the district’s demographer] projected for us on our site," Kennemer said.
Hines plans several different housing types within Carillon, including a village district with 95 attached houses and 131 zero-lot-line homes.
"We believe [the number of children] will be much lower in the village district," Kennemer said.
Students who live in Carillon would be in Johnson Elementary School’s attendance zone, but the district’s long range planning committee is exploring building a sixth elementary school to handle increased enrollment.
Kennemer got a pretty quick answer when he asked about Johnson’s enrollment.
"It’s over capacity," the crowd answered almost in unison.
Kennemer said that by the time Carillon starts developing, nearby Estes Park would be built out, reducing the number of students from there.
Superintendent David Faltys asked whether Hines would consider lowering the housing density.
Because the council has the final say on the project, Councilman John Terrell answered the question for Kennemer.
"Yes. It’s a possibility," he said.
The next public hearing for the Carillon project will be at the July 17 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
If the council lowers the housing density, Kennemer said, Hines would make up the difference with more commercial.
Trustees were also curious whether the performing arts center could be used for a meeting space.
Kennemer said Hines is investigating that and other options, including having area colleges offer graduate programs there.
Though Carillon would make a significant contribution to the district’s taxable value, Faltys said the current school finance structure sends most of that extra property tax revenue to the state in Robin Hood payments.
That’s because the amount of money the district gets per student from the state remains frozen at the 2006-2007 dollars.
"Salaries, fuel prices, diesel, those sort of things that are based on today’s prices, we’re being compensated from the state on ’06 and ’07 values," Faltys said. "That’s not a good thing."
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