City Council Agenda Packet 10-04-2007 Special
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MONTICELLO
SPECIAL MEETING
PUBLIC WORKS FACILITY NEEDS STUDY
SITE SELECTION REPORT
6:00 PM THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4,2007
MISSISSIPPI ROOM (NORTH END)
MONTICELLO CITY HALL/COMMUNITY CENTER
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Special Council Meeting -10/04/2007
1. Review of Public Works Facilities Needs Studv Site Selection Reoort in consideration of
Purchase Agreement of 20 acre Darcel located in the Northwest comer of 85th Street and
Edmonson Avenue. (J.S.)
A. REFERENCE AND BACKGROUND:
At the workshop prior to the last Council meeting on the evening of September 24, 2007, Ed
Kodet presented the Public Works Facility Needs Study and reviewed some of the basic
information with the City Council. Much of the discussion centered on possible sites throughout
the community where the facility could be located. Several sites located in the new Otter Creek
Industrial Park and the adjoining area were discussed. In addition, the Ruff Property currently
being considered for residential development was briefly discussed along with the parcel owned
by Shawn Weinand located just west of Jefferson Commons. The group briefly discussed
property on the west side of Highway 25, just south of Kjellberg's Mobile Home park along with
the KMOM property on the east side of Edmonson Avenue north of 85th Street. Also touched
upon was the 20 acre parcel south of Featherstone in the northwest comer of Edmonson and 85th
Street. This site was up for auction.
At the end of the workshop, the City Council directed City staff to work with Ed Kodet and
evaluate the sites discussed at the meeting. A copy of the review of those sites is included with
your agenda packet.
Most of the sites did not allow enough room and were either compromised by size, topography
or cumbersome power line or gas line easements. The 2 sites that showed the most promise were
the 40 acre Spike 2 site which lies west of the 40 acre Spike 1 site currently being considered for
BioTech Industry. The other site that showed the most promise was the 20 acre auction site
south of Featherstone. It, however, would have to be combined with a small portion of the
Featherstone plat at least 7 or 8 acres to get above the minimum 25 acre requirement to be able to
reach the 40 year expected growth for Public Works. Further investigation showed that the
Spike 2 site had a 2007 estimated market value as per the County Assessor of $540,000. The
Spike I site, however, which is located at the end of our completed street near the A VR plant,
showed a 2007 estimated market value of $1.1 million. The 20 acre farm site located south of
Featherstone had a 2006 estimated market value of $598,600 and a 2007 estimated market value
of $779,600. Further investigation of the farm site which had been up for auction showed the
auction had concluded on September 20, 2007. The high bidder had failed to obtain the
financing for purchase. Alliance Real Estate Auctions is selling the property subject to probate
court approval, the realtor indicates that the current owner and the probate court would accept a
figure of $500,000 and would waive the 8% buyer premium of $40,000.
City staff consulted with the mayor and it was suggested that staff obtain information from the
owner of the Featherstone/Gold Nugget property as to whether he would sell the City an
additional 8 acres to allow the farm site to be fully developed for a 40 period of time for the use
of the Public Works facility. Bruce and I met with Horst Grazier on Monday afternoon, October
1,2007 and he indicated he would be willing to sell a portion of his property to the City. He will
present a letter indicating he would sell us additional acreage and list a price. He would deliver
that letter to us by Thursday, October 4,2007.
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Council Meeting - 09/24/2007
The proposed location for the new Public Works facility at the farm site and other sites were
discussed by staff and consultants at the Tuesday, October 2, 2007 site review meeting. While it
was concluded that the farm site with additional acreage from Featherstone would work for the
Public Works facility, it may be better to try to purchase that land and trade it to Horst for a
portion of the land closer to Highway 25 but yet east of the proposed light industrial/commercial
property.
I spoke again with Mr. Grazier on Wednesday, October 3, 2007. He indicated that he had
prepared some sketches and drawings and felt that 7.1 acres would be available to add on to the
farm site should the Public Works facility be built there. He also indicated he would prefer to
have the westerly side and northerly side well screened. I then asked Mr. Grazier ifhe would be
willing to sell us 30 acres just east of the industrial property or trade. He also thought that might
be a better location for the Public Works facility and would try to get something together in time
for our meeting as to what kind of arrangements we could make. He also indicated he may take
this 20 acre farm in trade.
Weare in the process of putting together a purchase agreement for the farm site, the 20 acres and
placing contingencies in the purchase agreement that would allow us do a phase 1 environmental
study, do soil borings to determine the suitability of the site for building construction, obtain a
final survey of the boundaries of the site, file for and obtain annexation of the property in to the
City of Monticello and obtaining the proper zoning for the construction of the Public Works
facility. The estimated time to complete all of this would be 90 days. So the closing would be
out 90 days from the acceptance of the purchase agreement. The purchase agreement would be
written for an amount of $500,000. The real estate company, Alliance, has also notified all of
the people at the auction who showed an interest in the property that they would accept offers on
the property until next week.
B. ALTERNATIVE ACTIONS:
1. The first alternative would be to select the farm site (the 20 acre site) along with 7 or 8
acres from Featherstone and authorize staff to submit a purchase agreement approved by
the City attorney for the purchase of the farm site and the portion from Featherstone
along with the conditions as previously outlined above.
2. The second alternative would be to approve a purchase agreement for the 20 acre farm
site and submit it with the conditions as previously discussed above and approval of the
City attorney for the purpose of trading in the future towards a 30 acre piece of
Featherstone near Highway 25. This would be based upon the information obtained from
the owner of the Featherstone/Gold Nugget property that such a trade would work and the
purchase price would be acceptable to the City of Monticello.
3. The third alternative would be to negotiate with the owners of the Spike property for
purchase of the Spike 2 site and report back to the Council at a later date.
4. The fourth alternative would be to do additional study on one of the other existing sites or
to move on to look at other sites not yet looked at the direction of the City Council.
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Special Council Meeting -10/04/2007
C. STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Since the Public Works building committee has not met there are no recommendations coming
forth from that body at this time. All of the members should be present at the Council meeting
and this recommendation could be forth coming at that meeting.
D. SUPPORTING DATA:
Copy of site selection report and various plan sheets and photos.