ACC Enters Into Bastrop Land Contract

Wed, June 9, 2010 | Cyndi Wright, Bastrop Advertiser 

Austin Community College announced Wednesday that it has entered into a contract for the purchase of approximately 87 acres in Bastrop, west of the center of Bastrop, fronting on FM 304 south of Texas 71.

The land is designated as the site of a future ACC Bastrop Campus, as Bastrop ISD voters consider joining the ACC taxing district.

Information about the selling price is not available at this time, according to ACC officials.

The Bastrop ISD annexation election is set to take place in November 2010, after a committee of Bastrop ISD citizens gathered enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot.

ACC’s board-approved master plan includes building a comprehensive campus in Bastrop ISD upon a successful annexation election. The college is prohibited from using ACC taxpayer funds to subsidize construction of a campus outside the taxing district.

“ACC’s land-banking efforts are a proactive strategy to acquire potential campus sites within the college’s 7,000-square mile, eight-county service area,” said Stephen B. Kinslow, ACC president. “Changing demographics, as well as increasing demand for workforce degrees and certificates, are driving dramatic enrollment increases.”

Spring 2010 marks the fourth consecutive semester of record enrollment college-wide, with more than 41,000 credit students. Since spring 2008, ACC has grown by more than 8,600 students. That two-year growth is greater than the total enrollment of some area universities.

Only Bastrop ISD voters will be eligible to vote in the annexation election.

Should the measure pass, Bastrop ISD residents would immediately receive the reduced, in-district tuition rate of $42 per credit hour, compared with the out-of-district rate of $150 per hour (effective fall 2010). Homeowners would pay a property tax currently set at $0.0946 per $100 valuation. On a home valued at $150,000, this would equate to about $141 per year in additional taxes.

The college offers a standard $5,000 homestead exemption and senior citizens and homeowners with disabilities receive an additional $105,000 exemption, for a total exemption of $110,000.

The college expects to be able to complete construction of the first phase of a Bastrop campus in 2014, if the annexation effort is successful this November.