By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
The Decatur Redevelopment Commission, which already owns a portion of land in the city’s Industrial Park III, is going to be getting some more.
The commission owns two lots, one of 27 acres and the other consisting of 1.8 acres. In the same tract of land, the city owns two lots of five acres apiece.
So the area in question totals just under 39 acres.
The land is off County Road 450N, north of the Walmart store, and is certified “shovel ready.”
Two members of the redevelopment commission, John Summer and Jeremy Friedt, appeared at the latest city council meeting, asking to get the four lots to the ownership of one body and begin the process of making it available for sale.
Friedt said that last year, someone was looking over the land as the possible site for a business. But the process to get the land available for sale had not been done. And the time it would take to complete the process quashed the prospect’s interest.
To sell property, a government entity is required by law to have two appraisals of the property. The average of the two appraisals are what it would be required to bring in a sale.
So after some discussion, it was decided that the city would turn over its two lots to the redevelopment commission, which will then get the appraisals and have the near 39 acres ready for sale if an interested buyer comes along.
“We have been sitting on these properties and I think this was the original intent,” Councilwoman Jenny Bowers-Shultz said.
The Adams County Redevelopment Commission has been marketing the properties, it was noted.
City Attorney Anne Razo will prepare a resolution to make the change and bring it before council at its next meeting.