NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- The North Royalton City Schools will pay a Columbus natural gas and oil company $10,000 to limit drilling on the site of the former Valley Vista Elementary School.
EOS Energy LLC has held drilling rights on the Valley Vista property since 2008, according to the Jan. 28 agreement giving EOS $10,000 to limit drilling there.
The problem is that Liberty Development Co. in Westlake is preparing to build a 17-home clustered subdivision on the 22-acre Valley View site.
The city granted the plan final approval earlier this month.
The school district sold the property to Liberty in 2022 for $435,000.
“When we looked to sell (the school property), we knew we may have to work with them (EOS) to limit where they were drilling if homes were being built,” schools Superintendent Michael Laub told cleveland.com.
“We agreed to pay EOS $10,000 to limit their drilling so it would not impact the homes,” Laub said.
The Jan. 28 agreement between the school district and EOS states that Liberty believes that oil and gas drilling would prevent the Valley Vista site from being “commercially viable.”
Laub said drilling will be prohibited near homes to ensure that EOS will not engage in horizontal drilling beneath homes.
The site of the former school, which has been demolished, is on the south side of Wallings Road just east of State Road.
Although the new residential subdivision will occupy a 22-acre site, only 35 percent of that land will contain homes. The other 65 percent will be designated as permanent open space.
The site plan shows a single street, ending in a cul-de-sac, off the south side of Wallings just east of Villa Grande Drive.
Houses will line both sides of the new street and cul-de-sac.
The individual parcels will measure between 11,000 square feet and nearly 27,000 square feet.
An existing telecommunications tower, erected in 1999, along with the working oil and gas well, will remain on the property.
Valley Vista, along with Albion and Royal View elementary schools, were replaced in 2021 by the new North Royalton Elementary School.
Read more from the Sun Star Courier.