A pond promises to run up the cost of a new Lexington middle school.

The site is a “colossal waste of money,” said Trustee Jada Garris

A Lexington 1 official denies the pond on property at Old Cherokee Road and Cherokee Trail has problems, but Garris disagrees.

“The board was told that the district avoids land with wetlands at all costs because it delays construction and mitigating wetlands significantly increases the cost,” said trustee Jada Garris.

“Meadow Glen Elementary, Meadow Glen Middle and River Bluff High School are examples where there are pond and stream buffers but no wetlands as defined by the Army Corps of Engineers. We avoided those pond and stream buffers in those 3 schools, too.

“It’s not a good idea to use those 3 schools as a good argument for anything. I could write a book about the issues associated with those sites.”

Chief Communications Officer Mary Beth Hill said the administration believes the site is large enough for the school without encroaching on or developing the pond or wetlands. Less than an acre is classified as wetlands according to the Lexington County GIS website.

“The site is large enough,” Hill said. 30 to 50 acres is the amount the district likes to purchase for a middle school. We are purchasing over 60 acres.”

Hill said the district will do an environmental study to decide the exact acreage.

“We have 7 schools now with wetlands on their sites. In fact, the Lake Murray Elementary site has 22 acres of wetlands.

“Wetlands are not an issue for site development if you have enough property to work around them. They only become an issue when development means you have to encroach on them.”

Hill said the district cannot estimate any costs related to the wetlands.