Council considers options

Rogers City officials discussed the status of the land dispute concerning Sports Park at their regular meeting Monday evening. The issue involves a parcel of land that had been leased by the city for more than 20 years but was recently sold by the owner, Detroit and Mackinac Railroad (D&M), to one of the residents in the neighborhood.

THE PARCEL extends 30 feet into right field as well as the adjacent parking and alley along the northeast side of the park. The parcel contains 28,896.49 square feet or 0.663 acres. According to city manager John Bruning, the city tried to purchase the property in 1992 and 1994 but there was some confusion over ownership as Lake State Railway was paying the tax on the property during that time while the title was held by D&M.

Bruning noted that the recent sale of the property to a private landowner occurred before the city was able to prepare a new offer due to statutory requirements for public hearings on the matter. Consequently, the railroad decided to sell the land to the highest bidder without waiting for the city’s final offer. The parcel was sold for $10,000 to Casey Orr, according to the deed that was recorded on November 24, 2004 at the Register of Deeds office.

THE NEW OWNER then offered the property to the city for $28,896 with the provision that the city transfers another parcel of land adjacent to the park with its value to be deducted from the price. Council member Gary Nowak asked city attorney Mike Vogler whether it was possible for the city to pursue direct negotiations in lieu of spending more money on the appraisal and other legal fees. Vogler replied that an independent appraisal is a formal step in the process required by law for the city to make an offer on its own to the landowner. “If the landowner chooses to amend his original offer to the city, however, the council could respond directly to his amended offer,&#

8221; Vogler said.

IN ADDITION, there are side issues that would have to be resolved before the council could consider Orr’s original offer to the city. For example, Orr’s offer included a request that the city transfer title of another land parcel, as part of the agreement but this requires a 60 percent public approval on a ballot proposal on the issue in order to proceed. Because a special election for this purpose would be too costly, it would have to wait for the next general election and would have a good chance of being defeated by voters, said Rogers City Mayor Beach Hall after the meeting.

WHEN REACHED by telephone, Casey Orr had no comment other than to say he would be talking directly to the city manager about the matter. In other business, the council approved a motion to extend the engineering services contract with former city manager Rob Fairbanks for another six months to allow time for all subcontractor work on the EDA project to be completed. The mayor suggested the council plan to hold a workshop meeting on the budget before the end of January to start planning for the next fiscal year. A motion to that effect was approved.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.