SOUTHWEST FORSYTH -- Forsyth County’s newest high school could be getting some neighbors.

During a recent work session, Forsyth County commissioners approved 4-0, with District 5 Commissioner Jim Boff absent, to move forward with the purchase of 9.5 acres of the Denmark High School site with a land plan for a library, field and a possible sheriff’s office precinct.

“We’ve been talking with the schools about the possibility of having a library be on part of that site for a number of years,” said Anna Lyle, Director of Forsyth County Public Library.

The school is set to open in August 2018, though no timeline was given for the other uses.

The library wants to use about 6.5 acres of the site. A portion of the property is proposed for a field to be used by the school and youth sports through the county’s parks department and a possible sheriff’s precinct near the school.

The land plan will be done with inputs from the library, parks and the sheriff’s departments.

Lyle said the meeting was only to discuss the property.

“Construction of that would be an entirely separate issue we would address in the next SPLOST referendum, hopefully,” Lyle said. “But because we need to acquire this land before prices get completely out of control, we at least wanted assurance from the county that we could count on this being our property.”

Impact fees have also been set aside for the project.

The library would likely be larger than most of the county’s four existing branches.

“Our last couple of libraries have been 24,000 or 25,000 square feet,” Lyle said. “Knowing the growth is anticipated in the southern part of the county, I would actually foresee this being more of a 30,000- to 40,000-square-foot building, rather than building a smaller building that we will turn around in 10 years and ask you to expand.”