Matthew Santoni, The Examiner
2007-03-29 07:00:00.0
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Bel Air, Md. -

Relief for overcrowded schools near Bel Air may take until 2010, as delays mount for a new elementary school on Vale Road.

Inadequate water and sewer service to the site mean that the school would depend on either a county-built pumping station, a development awaiting approval or state permits for a septic system, any of which could set the school back from its original 2009 opening, said schools Director of Planning and Construction Kathleen Sanner.

“Unless we can solve the problem with the sewage pumping station quickly, it may have to be pushed back another year,” said schools spokesman Don Morrison. “Right now we’re being held up by what happens to the [sewage] that comes out of that building.”

The county finds itself in a dilemma, because a nearby development that would include a new pumping station is unable to proceed because of the area’s limited school capacity.

The Blake’s Legacy project on Red Pump Road was put on hold at a Development Advisory Committee meeting earlier this month, said Moe Davenport, Harford County’s chief of development review, because Adequate Public Facilities laws prevent new development from occurring where schools are above 105 percent of their county-rated capacity.

The development can’t move forward without new school capacity, and the new school can’t be built without the development’s pumping station.

“It’s a catch-22, chicken and the egg kind of thing,” Davenport said.

The school is in limbo unless planners find another site, shuffle students through redistricting or include a temporary septic system in their plans, Davenport said.

The school system is continuing to search for another elementary school site that could replace the Vale Road proposal or support a second new school, said Morrison.

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com