As reported in Townbroadcast recently, the Wayland City Council agreed to sell a 25.11-acre city-owned parcel to developers.
Not being at the meeting, I am depending on the accuracy of the report by someone who was reporting on the meeting. I have no doubt the author was correct, and if he wasn’t, please respond to this article and set me straight. But let’s presume everything reported about the sale of the property was correct.
I’m no property expert, but I know commercial property sells for far more than residential and farm land. I’ve heard and spoken to many people about the article in Mr. Young’s posting and have heard overwhelmingly the comment “that’s really cheap.” Some have said if they knew the land was for sale at that low of price, they would have bought it.
If you divide the selling amount by the acreage ($20,000/25.11), the per acre price is $796.50! I’ve never heard of any land sold $1,000 per acre in 2017, let alone the low price paid for this commercial property.
Being a taxpayer to the city, I (and I presume many others) would like to ask a few questions of the City Council:
- When did the city buy this property and how much was originally paid? How much in taxes were collected on this parcel per year? What was the difference in the original purchase price of the property by the city and selling price?
- Was the property sold through a realtor or was it sold by a bidding process? And if it was a bidding process, was it publicly announced and advertised?
- What was the asking price through the realtor and why was it finally sold for a paltry $20,000?
I think the citizens and taxpayers of the city are due some answers concerning this sale and how it transpired.
If the City Council was so determined to rid themselves of the property, why didn’t they do one of two things:
- Publicly announce the property for sale by bid. OR
- Auction the property off in an open property auction.
I’m sure either process would have resulted in much higher selling price than $20,000. I welcome any City Council member to address this and explain how commercial property was sold within the city limits for the paltry sum of $20,000. You owe it to the taxpayers to explain how this came about and why.
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