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CASE 13 ISSUES RELATING TO OUTLOT B, COUNTRYSIDE ESTATES BY: William K. Goodrich, City Attorney BACKGROUND: Countryside Estates was platted and accepted by the then Township of Ramsey in 1972. The dedication language of the plat states in part as follows: Also dedicatix!~g to the pubIic for the public use forever for park and recreation purposes Outlots B, C, D, E, and F, as shown on this plat. Attached for your information is a copy of a part of the Plat showing Ouflot B. Unfortunately, the actual plat when recorded did not show any of the outlots as parks, only as ouflots. This resulted in the problem as follows: The developer of the plat was First Guaranty Corporation, Arthur K. Raudio, President, and Joseph E. Campion, Secretary. Subsequent to the platting, First Guaranty Corporation apparently ignored the fact that it had dedicated the lot to the City as park and proceeded to act as if it owned the lot by mo..rrtgaging it, amongst other things. Anoka County did not recognize the lot as a park as it was taxing this lot and eventually took it back because of property tax forfeiture. At some point in time,!' Central Investment Company became involved with the property and attempted to redeem it from Anoka County. The City did not recogn/ze the property as park land either as the City participated in the tax redemption process and agreed to split the lot with Central Investment Company. The City kept the south half of the lot for drainage purposes and the north half was redeemed by Central Investment Company. Central Investment Company then sold the north half to Chateau Construction Company owned by Dick Carson who then obtained a building permit fi-om the City'and constructed a home on the north half. Chateau's title company did not discover the park either an6, issued a title pohcy insuring title for the homeowner. In 1989, the City Council recognized the problem and received comment from several Countryside Estate residents. The residents' main concern was the loss of park area for their youngsters. In response to tills, the City purchased a three acre tract in the adjacent Windsorwood Plat to be used as a park. This is Lot 9, Block 2, Windsorwood. I do not believe that to date any park improvement~ have been made to this loX. Wright Title Company in Elk River issued the title policy to Chateau Construction. Wright Title is therefore most interested in cleaning up the title problems relating to this lot. Mayor Gilbertson has spoken to a Wright Title representative who has indicated that they are willing to pay the City $1,000.00 towards our expenses in vacating the City's park interests in the north half of the lot. As is obvious, there has been a series of errors made by several people including Ano ~ka County and the City.: The only practical way to resolve the issue at this point is for the City to undertake a vacation proceeding to vacate the north half of the lot on which the home has been constructed. STAFF RECOMMENDATION: The City's errors in finding this to be a buildable lot and issuing a building permit for it makes it very difficult[at this time to pursue any other course of action but that of vacating our interest in this lot and therefore staff recommends that the City vacate its park interest in the north half of Ouflot B.