Douglas County School

Smart Planning Begins with Projection of Growth

Student enrollment is projected annually in order to plan for school calendars, mobile classrooms and new schools.  The Long Range Planning Committee continually analyzes community population changes and evaluates population impacts on schools.  The committee also informs the Board of Education regarding school attendance boundaries, facility usage, dedicated school site land inventory, and anticipated capital requirements.  Every year the committee presents these findings in the five-year Master Capital Plan to the Board of Education.

Accommodating New Residential Development

When determining the impact of residential development, Douglas County School District evaluates how many students are expected from any given development based on density. Once the student generation is calculated, it is then determined how much land would be required to build a school as well as capital funds to construct a school.

Often times, a development will generate acreage, but not enough for an entire school site. In these cases, the District may choose to accept a smaller site. These smaller sites would help mitigate the growing needs for support service space as the District grows, such as support facilities or administrative buildings, Early Childhood Centers, or special needs and alternative facilities. The District may also collect cash-in-lieu of land, or a combination of both. Collecting cash-in-lieu for smaller dedications allows the District to consolidate cash-in-lieu funds and use this money to purchase school sites to address growth in enrollment.

Development Standards and Guidelines

Land Development Standards
When making calculations for development land requirements, Douglas County School District (“District") uses standards in all responses for referral requests from local jurisdictions within the District. The minimum school site land requirements are as follows;

Site Acreage

Many factors go into these calculations including student capacity demands per school type, the topography of the school site(s), stormwater requirements, and two separate access points into the site. A net calculation is conducted that only takes into account the residential properties acreage. This is the residential lot and public road acreage. The final factor in the calculation is to divide the net by the number of dwelling units (DU).

For purposes of development land requirement calculations, the District uses updated student capacity factors as follows;

The development land requirement acres per student is 0.018 acres per elementary school student (12 acres/680 students = 0.018 acres per student), 0.030 acres per middle school student (30 acres / 1000 students = 0.030 acres per student), and 0.030 acres per high school student (60 acres / 2000 students = 0.030 acres per student).

The student generation to density ratios are the following;

The development land requirement acres per student is 0.018 acres per elementary school student (12 acres/680 students = 0.018 acres per student), 0.030 acres per middle school student (30 acres / 1000 students = 0.030 acres per student), and 0.030 acres per high school student (60 acres / 2000 students = 0.030 acres per student).

The student generation to density ratios are the following;

Douglas County School District Review Process

The District has a review process for all land dedications. DCSD reviews these sites and can accept, accept on the condition or deny the dedication of these sites. The District welcomes involvement early in any land use design The documentation for this review will be provided by the developer and includes but is not limited to:

• Phase I (EA-1) Environmental Audit
• Soils Report and/or Geo-Technical Report
• Grading Plan (if available)
• ALTA Survey
• Review of street access
• Availability of Wet and Dry Utilities
• Stormwater Plans
• Title Commitments

Design Criteria for Schools

DCSD has several design criteria for the types of schools that are planned for throughout the District. Design Criteria are generally the followings;

Multi-Story, up to (3) three stories if possible
A flat and constructible site free of easements, land encumbrances, and located away from hazardous land uses.
Separation of traffic is needed for busses and cars.
A minimum of two access points from a collector and/or major arterials depending on the type of school and surrounded on a minimum of (2) two sides, preferably (3) three sides with streets.
Secondary schools need to be adjacent to a minimum of (1) one arterial right of way.

The School District can provide further information for more specific details.