St. Michael Acquires Adjacent Land

St. Michael has purchased adjacent land bordering the north and west side of the school's property (see below). The property is 39 acres, nearly doubling the size of St. Michael's existing 40 acres. It gives the school extraordinary flexibility in the creation of its athletic facilities and fields, and provides room for a master plan to include additional parking, a chapel, a fine arts building and more classrooms, if needed.  

The St. Michael Advisory Council and the Archdiocese of Mobile were concerned about conflicts over noise ordinances, light, and traffic that would have inevitably occurred if neighborhood subdivisions were  built immediately alongside the school's property. One such subdivision was already in the development stages.  With this purchase, the school now has a "buffer" between it and future neighborhoods. 

"Everyone agreed this was prudent, " says principal Faustin Weber. "Though it's tempting to think short-term to get everything we want built as quickly as possible, adjacent land is only available once, and our leadership believed it was important to think long-term.  Archbishop Rodi wishes to express his gratitude to a small group of generous donors who made this purchase possible. They contributed half the purchase price; the other half will be included in the case statement for our upcoming capital campaign, set to launch in the fall. I'm really excited about the possibilities this opens up for us!" 

An aerial view, with Higbee Road to the right of the picture.
The newly purchased land is marked in yellow and the existing property is marked in purple.
For scale, the "strip" of new property at the top (north) is 100 yards wide.