BOE rejects city's Bradley Road land offer, again
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published June 27, 2007

The Westlake Board of Education has again rejected the city’s offer of $1.9 million for 42 acres of undeveloped land on Bradley Road.

In a letter addressed to Mayor Dennis Clough and City Council President Michael Killeen, school board President Renee D’Ettorre Wargo reiterated the opinion that the property is worth more than the city is offering.

“Whether this land is developed for fields/parks or for residential housing, this land has a value in excess of the current offer,” the letter stated.

“It continues to be our hope that the city purchases the land,” the letter continued. “However, based upon the language of your last letter, it does not appear that this scenario will occur. Should the city wish to negotiate additional terms and dollars, we will certainly welcome such a response.”

In a May 18 letter to school board members, Clough and Killeen repeated an earlier offer of $1.9 million for the property, which the city has long wanted to utilize for recreational purposes. However, the city leaders said that the offer would become void June 15. After that date, they said the city would pursue other alternatives.

One possible course of action the city has already begun to work on is asking voters for their opinion on the fate of the land in an “advisory vote” this November.

An ordinance asking voters to decide whether the property should in fact be rezoned for recreational use was placed on second reading at Thursday’s council meeting. City Council, which has the authority to rezone the Bradley Road property, would prepare a rezoning ordinance and pass it if the advisory vote of the citizens tells them to, Killeen has said.

A companion ordinance amending the city’s zoning code to create a new zoning category for public recreation was placed on first reading Thursday and referred to the city’s planning commission.

D’Ettorre Wargo has criticized such rezoning efforts as an obvious attempt to pressure the school board into a sale to the city.

In the May 18 letter, Killeen said that council concluded that an appraisal of $3.79 million the school board obtained “simply lacks credibility and does not merit consideration.” The school board had used that appraisal as the basis of its asking price of $3.59 million. Based on a report by area appraiser Roger Ritley, city leaders concluded its offer of $1.9 million was at the high end of the fair value range. In May, Ritley told council members the land was likely worth $1.1 million.

Board member Thomas Mays, who has been handling negotiations with the city along with D’Ettorre Wargo, told West Life he did not see anticipate any progress being made on a sale of the land.

When asked if politics was a factor in the impasse, Mays said, “I’d like to be naïve and say it’s only the money, but I’m not sure that’s accurate.”

He said the school board’s decision to contract the services of the law firm of Ulmer and Berne LLP to represent the district in all future negotiations with the city was an attempt to remove the personalities from the issue.

Board member Joe O’Malley had called on the city to buy the land for as much as $5 million during his unsuccessful 2005 bid to defeat Clough.

Mays also refuted the claim of city leaders that wetlands on the property would make commercial development difficult and more costly, as Ritley told council.