Board directs staff to pursue easement rather than land swap after homeowner request

The board heard a request to exchange a small portion of district property for contiguous homeowner parcels near the Burleigh site. Staff said a homeowner submitted a recent survey and proposed swapping approximately 0.374 acres of district land for 0.384 acres he owns to formalize a driveway that has existed for decades.

CFO Jessica Grantham and staff explained statutory guidance requires that any swap must exchange equal-or-greater value to the district. Grantham advised that because of the long-standing driveway condition the district should consider an easement instead of a swap to avoid permanently conveying land and to protect district ingress and egress rights.

"So if we don't wanna proceed with a land swap, we really should have an easement in place to just from a legal perspective to ensure that we're not liable," Grantham said. Trustees discussed prescriptive rights and site access; one trustee asked for more GIS context before moving forward. The board voted to table the land-exchange inquiry and directed the CFO and legal counsel to draft easement language for board review.

Board members requested that staff return with clear maps, the homeowner’s proposal, and any appraisal guidance required by statute before any swap or conveyance is considered.