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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are a handful of schools in the area who have developed land to impact their bottom lines, and have done so successfully. My understanding is that not only is this not something that is considered abnormal, instead many schools are considering it across the country as tuition rates hike higher and higher. As a private school parent, it strikes me as funny that people think that a school making an investment (something schools have always done, check any school with an endowment) isn't something that can actually impact a school's direct community.[/quote]

Some schools have sold off land to a developer to generate cash for school purposes.  What's unusual about GDS is that the school is running the whole PUD process.  This means that the head of school and other school officials are out there at public meetings, zoning hearings and meetings with DC planning officials, not just on campus expansion plans and all that those entail, but on purely commercial real estate development matters:  housing, retail, affordable units, public amenities, density, height, the comprehensive plan, the list goes on.  While there likely are developers (some may be school insiders) in the background, the reason why the school is fronting the PUD is so that it can try to "transfer" density from the Safeway (expanded campus) site to the commercial site, in order to build the PUD higher and denser.  This not only means that the school leadership has been saddled with this whole PUD burden, which is outside of their normal expertise and jobs, but they have arguably been distracted throughout this year from focusing on important school issues that others have written about on this board.  By playing big developer, GDS has also taken a reputational hit and lost goodwill in the community, which may have created more boomerang opposition to the important campus consolidation project.  [/quote]

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