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I I I Council Meeting Minutes March 24, 1987 Gunderman initially had the same question but now believes, under the existing circumstances, it might not be a viable alternative; if it is an alternative, he would like to have it discussed. Benke believes staff has already initiated the process for acquir- ing the entire parcel; tonight we are saying we have a proposed development in hand that suggests we need to obtain ownership to these specific lots sooner rather than later. Williams had been under the impression the city was going to back off the acquisition of the rest of the property; Benke stated we have an option to back off the balance of the property. Williams asked if the city was going to go ahead with the apprai- sal; Locke indicated appraisals on all of Leier Estates were done before the city entered into condemnation proceedings; and nego- tiations for the land had begun before the proceedings. Locke ex- plained the quick take action only relates to the four lots, which neither prevents nor increases the acquisition for the rest of Leier Estates. Locke summarized the city's situation is that acquisition of the remaining lots by the city would be very expen- sive, even going through condemnation proceedings and getting them for less than what the owner is asking. Locke could not conceive of any use for that property to make it viable to set up as a tax increment project in order to recuperate those costs; from a prac- tical standpoint, he does not see how we can afford to pull them together. Benke believes the problem has been that the parcels on the south side of Ninth have been identified as problems because of the poor soils and anything on that land would have to be strategically placed. Williams asked if the city is likely to pay more handling it as two separate transactions; LeFevere believes the city would pay more in two separate transactions. Locke stated, from discussions with the attorneys handling the condemnation proceedings, we have soil problems on the property we are buying as well as what we are not buying; the property is already platted into lots and we are only acquiring specified lots. Locke agreed with LeFevere the city could argue a lower price if we bought the entire property rather than by purchasing it in two pieces but, because it is already platted in viable lots, we are purchasing four of them, which is not quite as dras- tic as if we were dealing with a true raw piece of unplatted land. Page 11