More information comes to light regarding offer of donated land for middle school

A local property owner and developer has found himself at the center of an ongoing dispute between the city and school district over where to build a new middle school. All the while, leaders of the two administrations appear to be no closer to finding a compromise. Here is the latest.

Property owner identifies himself

This week, Mark Kramer came forward and identified himself as the developer behind an offer of donated land in northwest Rochester.

Kramer, of New Hampton, Iowa, owns undeveloped property between 50th and 60th Avenues Northwest, north of Valleyhigh Drive Northwest.

A news release said Kramer offered the northern portion of the site to Superintendent Michael Muñoz during a phone call on Oct. 3.

The original offer was for 20-40 acres, dependent on the district’s needs, the release said. However, after learning that 20 acres would not be enough, Kramer purportedly agreed to donate up to 40 acres of land.

“The portion of ground that is offered to the Rochester Public Schools is the land most readily available with utilities for sewer and water, with the goal in mind that they would be able to start building the school as soon as possible,” said Diane Hoey, the COO of Kramer’s real estate firm.

Kramer’s office said the offer was made because they “knew that RPS and the City were struggling with finding a suitable piece of land for the approved referendum.” No conditions were attached to the offer.

Kramer does own scores of acres around the potential school site, though no specific plans have been identified for future development.

“The intent is to help the community with its goal to provide another school location and it has been suggested the northwest area is a desired location,” Hoey said in response to questions about the offer.

Hoey said Kramer, who also owns the 501 on First and former Days Inn properties downtown, has not heard from Muñoz since the offer was made.

“There was no continued dialogue on the land after the referendum passed,” she said.

District’s account of the offer

Reached Tuesday, a district spokesperson seemed to contradict Kramer’s assertion that 40 acres of land had been on the table from the start.

“Mr. Kramer had a brief phone conversation with the superintendent about a potential land donation,” said Heather Nessler, the director of communications for Rochester Public Schools. “The superintendent was provided a map by a city councilor, and together they reviewed a map of the area. Mr. Munoz stated we would need more than 20 acres, and that was the extent of the brief conversation. It was suggested at that point that the District would be [able] to purchase additional land from the developer.”

Nessler said Kramer never had direct conversations with Muñoz regarding a donation of 40 acres.

She also reiterated the district’s position that, despite reviewing numerous sites, it still views the Hart Farm land — located just outside of the southwest part of the city — as the best location for a new school.

“The Kramer property is one property in the overall mix and it is not an ideal location for the District’s middle school based on multiple factors, specifically, the location of past and current growth has been, and continues, in the southwest,” said Nessler.

Concerns about transparency

In a blog post Tuesday, Rochester City Council Member Michael Wojcik questioned why the public is only now learning of Kramer’s proposal, despite the district learning of the offer in October.

As we reported last week, city administration did not find out about the potential land until December when Kramer informed them of the offer.

“From a City standpoint, this information appears to have been deliberately withheld from us,” wrote Wojcik.

He added: “At this point we don’t know who made the decision to withhold this offer of free land from the public and the City. Did this decision come from the School Board or did it come from the Superintendent? We don’t even know if the Superintendent informed [the] School Board when he was offered up to 40 acres of land… We know that the offer was for more land than the Superintendent let on even this week.”

In response to the post, Nessler pushed back against Wojcik’s statements, asserting “the District has never deliberately withheld information. We have and continue to be transparent in this process. We have had many hours of meetings with city staff on site selection.”

She added: “We do not believe we are obligated, nor do we have the authority, to communicate all of the land options that we are exploring with the City Council. The District has only formally negotiated on one property, the southwest site, which we have shared publicly since March 2019.”

City Council President Randy Staver said Tuesday he originally connected Kramer with the superintendent in early October. Staver told us he only participated in the one phone call, and chose not to say anything publicly after the meeting “simply because it wasn’t my news to share.”

In his opinion, he said, it would be unfair to chastise the superintendent or district given what may have happened since the initial meeting.

“There could be many reasons that the idea wouldn’t pan out,” said Staver.  “Further, the school district had already said that northwest sites were considered as part of their analysis and dismissed for various reasons.  If a location fails the test on various merits then even the offer of ‘free’ land may not be the blessing one might think it is.”

Dispute over potential costs

Among the major points of ongoing friction is whether building the school in the southwest would put a financial strain on taxpayers.

The city, for its part, has repeatedly said the site would likely drive investment to an area not equipped with adequate infrastructure.

“This is an important discussion because the relative difference in taxpayer costs for the southwest site relative to the [Kramer] site may be well into the tens of millions of dollars,” Wojcik said, repeating similar concerns raised by city administration.

However, writing to us via email, Nessler sought to refute Wojcik’s statements. She pointed to a recent traffic study, conducted at the request of the city council, that showed the district would need to invest only in turning lanes for the middle school. Funding for those improvements, along with resources allowing the district to connect to water and sewer, was factored into the referendum budget process, she said.

“[Wojcik’s post] suggests the District would be causing an increase in infrastructure costs as a direct result of building the middle school in southwest Rochester, but the increase in cost would result, not from the middle school, but from any other additional growth in the area, which is within the City’s right to control per their [comprehensive] plan,” she wrote.

According to the city, the next big determination around whether the southwest site is feasible will come in late February, when the council will receive an update on the city’s Sanitary Sewer Master Plan.

Wojcik said the plan “will give us a feel for how much a southwest school and the two mile radius surrounding development would cost.”

In the meantime, the district plans to continue moving forward with a request to annex the Hart Farm site, while simultaneously studying the potential long-term costs of busing to various sites under consideration.

Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.

Cover graphic marks the sites of the two school options mentioned in the article. The school district boundaries are blue; city boundaries are red.