Plans for Catholic school on slow track in Severance

SEVERANCE – Plans to build a Catholic high school in Severance have progressed in the past year, but construction of the school is still several years away, according to those organizing the effort.

“I think it’s going to happen,´ said Richard Kemme, a retired Greeley orthopedic surgeon who is on the organizing committee for the school. “It’s a lot more likely now that we’ve bought the land.”

St. Mary’s Catholic Education Foundation, established when St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greeley opened an elementary school a few years ago, purchased 42 acres in Severance in late 2004. The plan is for the land, on the southwest corner of Weld County roads 72 and 23, to become a 400- to 500-student high school. Construction could cost up to $10 million, Kemme said.

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The Archdiocese of Denver, the Catholic headquarters for the northern half of Colorado, suggested the construction of a high school in Northern Colorado about seven years ago, said Kemme, a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. But nothing came of it until a couple of years ago, when Kemme started shopping for possible parcels of land.

Severance was chosen because it’s central to Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley. Each of the three cities has a kindergarten through eighth-grade Catholic elementary school that would feed into the high school.

This would be the first Catholic high school in Northern Colorado. The Archdiocese of Denver also operates two other high schools, Holy Family in Denver and Machebeuf in Aurora. There are several other private Catholic high schools in the Denver metro area.

Town on board

The town of Severance embraced the idea for the school, which is expected to boost other development in the 2,000-resident town, one of the state’s fastest-growing communities in terms percentage of growth.

According to the town’s comprehensive plan, the center of Severance, currently at Weld County roads 74 and 23, would eventually shift south to the intersection of Weld roads 72 and 23, where the high school would be located.

There was talk of the school’s athletic facilities and meeting areas being available for community use. Last fall, the Severance Town Board agreed to annex the school site and rezone it from agricultural to commercial use.

Since then, the school organizing committee has been working with Severance to put sewer lines and other infrastructure on the land, Kemme said. A feasibility study for the school has been completed, and an architect has drawn up a preliminary design that includes the school, athletic fields, a gymnasium and a church on the land, Kemme said.

Fund raising hasn’t started, however. Catholic parishes in Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley and the Archdiocese of Denver will have to work together to raise money to build the school.

“There’s a little bit of debate about how we ought to go about it,” Kemme said. “We know it will take a lot of organization. We’re waiting on the archdiocese to agree on when it’s timely to get going on it.”

Other development to come

Also a few years away are plans for commercial and residential development near the school site, said Stan Everitt, executive vice president of Everitt Cos. in Fort Collins.

Everitt Cos. is in the process of developing Hidden Valley Farm, a residential and commercial area west of the school site.

Hidden Valley would include up to 200 homes, and infrastructure may go in by late 2006 or early 2007, Everitt said. Those plans are dependent on approval by the town board. Also in the plans is a public elementary school, but that’s dependent on approval by Windsor School District Re-4.

Everitt’s bigger vision is to create a downtown area north of the Catholic high school site. That project, originally called Tailholt, would include a downtown area, a town hall, church sites, homes, parks and amphitheaters. Tailholt would surround the school site on three sides.

Everitt Cos. bought two parcels of land in the area, but development plans are on hold for now because of the economy, Everitt said.

“It’s kind of a fantasy dream, but I’m still sold on the notion to do it,” he said. “We need an economy that is not like it is today. There aren’t enough people in Severance yet to plop down millions of dollars on a project without knowing what the economy will do and when.”