Recent property purchases by Forsyth County officials could likely be home to county services in the future.

Following separate executive sessions at recent meetings, Forsyth County Board of Commissioners’ approved moving ahead with the purchase of more than 100 acres for future county uses.

At the March 15 regular meeting, commissioners approved the purchase of about 57 acres at 500 Windy Hill Drive for $5.9 million from Kay W. Veal and 23 acres on Mullinax Road for about $2.4 million from Mullinax Road, LLC and Jay Land. 

At the meeting, County Attorney Ken Jarrard referred to both as the “Denmark properties,” due to their proximity to Denmark High School, which is set to open this fall.

Deputy County Manager Tim Merritt said the land would be used for a park in the future.

“That will be for a park, but what we’re doing right now is we’re going ahead with the land purchase,” Merritt said. “As far as this park, we would have to go through the process of master planning and, of course, looking at what the needs are.”

Merritt said there was a need for the park per the county’s parks and recreation master plan. He said the county did not currently have funds to build a park, though it would be planned in the future. 

At the commission’s March 20 work session, the purchase of 30.9 acres was approved for $3.1 million at 3545 and 3555 Browns Bridge Road. Merritt said that land, which sits between the new Walmart and Settingdown Road, would likely have a variety of uses. 

“We have a general idea,” he said. “Part of the land would be used to add on to the public safety complex, part of the land would be used for some future roads, part of the land would be used for parks and recreation and part of the land would be used for future buildings.”

Merritt said the county is currently in the due diligence period of the purchase and will actually close on the land when that work is completed. 

“Where we are in the process is we are about to enter the due diligence period on both properties,” Merritt said. “In due diligence, we would have the property surveyed so we know exactly what we’re getting, we would do any geotechnical work that we think we need to do anticipating our future use, we would do a Phase 1 environmental assessment on it, particularly if it is going to be used for parks.”