A parks acquisition is like a poker game, said Eugene Parks Director Johnny Medlin - an elaborate poker game, with six-figure sums in the pot and developers, city staff, appraisers, activists and lawyers at the table.
In one "game" that has dragged on for years, the biggest chip is a 40-acre parcel of pristine forest off Nectar Way and Dillard Road.
City staff bluffed, and lost, on two chances to purchase the parcel for a park. Now Portland developer Joe Green is completing an application to build more than 100 houses on the property.
For those who are unhappy with how the cards have fallen, there's plenty of blame to shuffle around. The mistakes can't be corrected in retrospect, but EW offers this chronology to shed some light on the game.
In the late '70s, members of Munir Katul's family bought almost 100 acres of forested land in Eugene's south hills. They let it sit until 1990, when they asked Katul to try to sell it. For more than a decade, prospectors scoped the property but declined to buy it, concerned that its steep slopes and wetlands would be hard to develop in accordance with the city regulations.
In 2001, city parks staff bought the southern 54 acres of the property for $613,000. Katul said he pressed the staff to buy the remaining acres, but they declined.
"This was not a high-priority acquisition for us," he added. "Doing an acquisition just because a site has rare and endangered species, that's not been our business mandate."
In January 2004, Katul again invited the city to bid on the remaining 40 acres. Parks staff offered $300,000. Katul indicated that he would accept the city's offer only if a higher bid from another prospective buyer fell through. In March, Katul tentatively agreed to sell to the city, then reneged days later. In May he sold the property to Green for $325,000.
City acquisitions officer Russ Royer says that Katul didn't give the city a chance to match or beat Green's offer. But Katul paints a different picture. "I had been begging them to buy this property for years," he said. "Why didn't they show any interest or initiative when they had the chance? They missed the boat, but they tried to scapegoat me."
With the parcel on track for development, a group
called East Fork Amazon Headwaters Preservation
Society (EFAHPS) [now called VIEW] kicked into
gear. Members pointed out that the parcel has
been the highest ranked site on the city's natural
resources inventory for several years. City staff
resumed negotiations.
In August 2004, Green offered to sell the parcel to the city for $600,000 - almost twice what he'd paid for it three months earlier. City staff pursued the deal, applying for a state grant to match the city's $300,000. Green set a closure deadline of Oct. 1, 2004.
Marilyn Lippincott, grants coordinator for Oregon State Parks, told Medlin that the state would likely approve the grant, but it wouldn't be official until early October 2004. With the clock ticking, city parks staff commissioned an appraiser and secured a $300,000 loan from The Nature Conservancy in case they'd have to close the deal before receiving the state grant.
But the Oct. 1 deadline came and went. Money figuratively in hand, but without an appraisal, Medlin didn't close the deal. Instead, he asked for a deadline extension. Green called off all bets and moved ahead with his plans to develop the property. On Oct. 8, the state approved the $300,000 grant, but it was too late.
On Oct. 22, local appraiser John Brown valued the parcel at $431,000. In January 2005, Medlin, on behalf of the city, formally declined the grant, writing that the deal fell through because the appraised value didn't support the purchase price.
But folding on the deal was a matter of principle, not policy. "Believe me, I would have loved for this purchase to work out, but I could not recommend that we pay more than it was appraised for," Medlin said.
"This was not a high-priority acquisition for us," he added. "Doing an acquisition just because a site has rare and endangered species, that's not been our business mandate."
In July, the City Council passed a resolution to direct city officials to try to re-negotiate with Green. The effort went nowhere, however, because Green wasn't willing to sell.
Now, it appears that the city's only recourse
for acquiring the property would be through condemnation,
by City Council mandate. Or, hopes EFAHPS [VIEW]
member Lisa Warnes, city staff could keep working
with Green in hopes that he'll eventually change
his mind and sell.
But given the city's history of lost opportunities regarding the parcel, she isn't betting on it. "I don't think that the city ever really had a vested interest in buying this property," she said. "Once the [planned unit development] is approved and they start destroying things, it's done." • |
