City wants public meeting on Bradley land
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published March 14, 2007

Mayor Dennis Clough and City Council plan to schedule a public meeting for next month to discuss the fate  of the 42 acres of undeveloped land on Bradley Road owned by the Westlake City Schools. The city wants to purchase the land for recreational purposes.

Clough and Council President Michael Killeen have been holding negotiations with Board of Education President Renee D’Ettorre Wargo and Vice President Thomas Mays for several months. However, the two sides have been unable to agree on a price.

In August, the school board rejected the city’s offer of $1.9 million for the land, saying it believed they could get more money for the property even though a previous district-sanctioned appraisal set the value at $1.7 million. The board obtained a second appraisal last month which set the value at $3.97 million.

The city had obtained two appraisals which valued the property at $600,000 and $1.4 million. Now the city has spent about $5,000 to hire a third, Roger Rittley, to analyze all previous appraisals. Clough told West Life Rittley is still working on his study.

Clough said he and City Council members will invite school board members and their appraiser who valued the land at $3.97 million to attend the April public meeting.

“Whether they decide to come is up to them,” Clough said.

Robert Parry, Westlake’s director of planning and economic development, spoke with the school board’s most recent appraiser, Rick Linhart and Associates. However, Clough said the conversation brought up more questions than answers.

“It’s really important now to have the appraiser come before council to get answers as to how he came up with his value,” Clough said, “because it’s so far out of line compared to the other appraisals.”

Clough said the city will not make any more offers on the property until city officials have met with the school board’s last appraiser.

“We feel now it should be discussed in a public forum because it’s public land,” the mayor said.

D’Ettorre Wargo told West Life she and her fellow board members will need to discuss whether they will attend a joint public meeting with City Council about the property. However, she said she doubted any good would come of such a meeting.

“We don’t think we’re going to negotiate this publicly,” D’Ettorre Wargo said. “We think it will create a lot of drama and heightened emotion within the city.”

D’Ettorre Wargo said the school board wants to continue private negotiations with Clough and Killeen. In a recent letter, the school board asked the city if it was still interested in the land and if they would be willing to pay $3.5 million, D’Ettorre Wargo said. City leaders have not replied, the school board president said.

The district has also explored putting the land up for auction. It is widely anticipated a private developer would build single-family houses on the property. The land is currently zoned for residential use.

In January, Bill Hornung, an active volunteer in the community’s sports and recreation leagues for several years, submitted petitions to City Council asking that the Bradley Road land be reserved for recreational purposes. This opened the possibility that citizens might lead a petition drive to place a rezoning measure before voters to change the land’s zoning from residential to parks and recreational zoning. City Council could also act on its own and put a rezoning measure before voters, Killeen told West Life.