Lexington District 1 has been refused 28 of 60 acres for a new middle school.

The Chronicle has been told that the property owner of 1 of 4 parcels bowed to neighbors’ pressure and refused to sell her land.

This leaves the district with about 32 acres for a new Lexington Middle School on congested Old Cherokee Road.

“We are moving ahead,” Mary Beth Hill of District 1 told the Chronicle. “We didn’t need that much land to begin with.”

The district planned to buy all 4 parcels contingent on all closing together.

The district has not replied to Chronicle requests for information on which parcel was denied, how much the other 3 will cost and whether the district can reduce the overall cost of the project on 32 acres.

The cost of the new middle school and 2 elementary schools were part of a $365 million, 5-year building plan voters approved last year.

The new middle school will replace the current school on highly congested SC 6 and US 378 in town.

The Chronicle has been told that a state Department of Transportation traffic study of the site has been completed, but the district has not made it public.

The study was supposed to examine the available road frontage, property depth and ability to provide traffic circulation on site for stacking vehicles during peak student drop-off and pick-up times.

Commuters and local officials have been concerned about the school’s impact on morning rush hour traffic.

Old Cherokee Road has become a bypass around the northern side of town and is highly congested 5 mornings a week.

Hill said the district is developing a web page to enable the public to see what is happening at the site.