Minutes - Council - 02/24/2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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property for sale and have started to take steps as far as cleaning up the outside areas. He stated there are a number of vehicles that they have allowed friends and relatives to park at the facility, which was supposed to be on a temporary basis, as well as some of their own vehicles that have broken down. It is starting to get out of hand and as they have done in the past they will contact an individual to come in and haul away that type of material. Because the building is for sale, whether these are fire conditions is immaterial to its value and its marketability as a property, since all that material would be cleaned out of there prior to the new tenant moving in. Mr. Hanson stated they do welcome the City to negotiate in good faith. Item number six on this resolution threatens them with eminent domain if staff fails to achieve the purchase of the property over any of the other tenants or people that are inquiring about the property. This would be actionable in that it would prevent them from getting the full value of the property that they could have realized had the City not taken that action. Even just threatening in this manner will have a chilling effect on the buyers. One of the buyers is Ace, and he is sure as far as their public use of the property it would be at least equal to the City's own. He has informed some of the other eight people that have inquired about the property and the other two that have given them offers of the possibility of eminent domain proceedings. The area of eminent domain in this particular instance is somewhat questionable and he urges the Council to think hard on this. There are a lot of other small business owners in the City and this sends a very chilling message as far as the type of negotiations the City might take. City Administrator Norman noted this property is for sale and it appears there are eight different parties that are interested. One of the reasons to seize this opportunity is that the property is not desirable in its current state. Councihnember Zimmerman suggested staff bring this discussion back to the Council if good faith negotiations do not work. Mayor Gamec stated bringing this discussion back would be a delay. In most cases whenever this has been done staff has done quite a bit of negotiations and have every intention of doing so. City Attorney Goodrich explained according to state law the City must negotiate in good faith. Also, the City will pay full market value and there is a series of checks and balances in that process. There is ability for the landowner to appeal and it will be very fair to him. City Attorney Goodrich stated the record should reflect that the Council has reviewed the pictures of the property taken by the Fire Marshal. City Attorney Goodrich amended the third whereas in the resolution to the following: "...and to promote local business expansion, improvement, development and redevelopment; and pursuant to the act this constitutes public purpose; and" Councihnember Cook stated he does not think the question is whether they will negotiate, the real question before the Council now is whether they feel this building is something they want to have in that area and if it should be changed to something else. The reason for going to eminent domain is because they are saying they would like to see this building upgraded to something nicer, and if they do not want it sold to the another property that would use it the same way. If they are doing that on other properties they should do that with this property so they can move City Council/February 24, 2004 Page 20 of 31