State board approves annexation request for future Coralville elementary school site

A state panel on Wednesday cleared the way for a future elementary school to be in Coralville's city limits.

The City Development Board, which decides annexation requests in Iowa, voted to approve Coralville's request to annex two parcels of land off North Liberty Road about a half mile south of Dubuque Street.

One is along the road and is owned by the school district. The district wants to swap that property for land owned by Scanlon Family Farm LC, directly to the east.

The annexations should become final within 30 days if there is no appeal, said Tina Hoffman, spokeswoman for the Iowa Economic Development Authority, which is home to the board.

The Iowa City school board will hold a public hearing Aug. 27 on the district's intention to trade its property for the other.

The school board this summer has agreed to property purchases for two other elementary schools and a high school.

The high school land is at the intersection of North Liberty Road and Dubuque Street, and is intended to eventually be annexed into North Liberty, Superintendent Stephen Murley said.

The area around the North Liberty Road school sites was the subject of a 5-year-long annexation dispute between Coralville and North Liberty, and a lawsuit, until the the two towns agreed to an annexation plan in 2011.

The other two new elementary schools will be in eastern Iowa City.