Documents show that a public charter school is still eyeing a former car dealership property on North Main Street as a potential location for its school, and that the neighborhood association in the area where it would be located still vehemently opposes the would-be project.
In 2018, the Clear Dot Charter School was making plans to set up shop at 2222 Main Street, the former Jim Moore Cadillac dealership site just north of Elmwood Avenue. At the time, the school received pushback from neighbors in the direct vicinity of the location, with the board of the Cottontown/Bellevue Historic District Neighborhood Association voting unanimously to oppose the project, citing a number of concerns, including worries about the traffic that would come along with a school that could one day have more than 1,000 students. The school had long been in negotiations with the state Department of Transportation about a traffic plan for the site.
Clear Dot instead opened its doors in August for the 2019-20 academic year at a location in the 2000 block of Marion Avenue. About 200 students in grades K-6 were attending the school in its inaugural year. Clear Dot is one of more than a dozen charter schools sponsored by Erskine College in Due West. It’s also the first South Carolina school under the Florida-based education service provider Academica.
But it appears the school is still making overtures about the property at 2222 Main, a five-acre tract bounded by Main, Franklin, Sumter and Scott streets. Records show the school has continued to work on a traffic plan for the Main Street site, and the neighborhood association in Cottontown is renewing its opposition to the possibility of the school locating at the former car dealership property.
In September, construction firm M.B. Kahn submitted a traffic impact analysis — prepared by planning firm Kimley-Horn — to the Department of Transportation for Clear Dot Charter School.
Subsequently, SCDOT director of traffic engineering Rob Perry sent the developers a letter on Oct. 21 telling them they needed to interface with the community to gauge its receptiveness to certain road work in the area related to the school.
“It is incumbent upon the permittee to inform all stakeholders of proposed improvements and to determine the stakeholders’ receptiveness to the improvements,” Perry wrote in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by Free Times.
Recently, residents of Kinard Court, which is off Main Street, across from Scott Street near the proposed school site, began receiving mailers informing them of a potential concrete median extension on Main, and how it could affect traffic flow. Recipients of the mailer were invited to submit their feedback.
Cottontown association president Will Thrift has since sent a letter to Perry saying the Cottontown/Bellevue Historic District Neighborhood Association has not heard directly from school officials or the developers about the would-be traffic improvements.
“Our neighborhood remains opposed to the school’s locating at this site,” Thrift wrote in his letter. “We also feel the need to note that the entities involved with Clear Dot have made a practice of speaking to their few neighborhood supporters and then proclaiming that they have neighborhood support. We on the Cottontown board find this tactic offensive, counter-productive, and the antithesis of what a true community school should represent.”
Free Times has reached out to Clear Dot Charter School Principal Lindsay Ott.
Clear Dot is a tuition-free school. Main Street plans discussed in 2018 called for a $20 million project in which the school would come together in three phases over five years.
The Jim Moore Cadillac dealership at 2222 Main St. has been closed for a number of years. It is located in an area of the city that has seen rebirth in recent years, with the opening of such businesses as The War Mouth restaurant, the CottonTown Brew Lab brewery, and the trendy coffeination parlours Indah Cofee and Curiosity Coffee Bar. All of those businesses are on the streets adjacent to the would-be school site.
