KALAMAZOO COUNTY, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — UPDATE: The Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners has agreed to sell a piece of land at KL Avenue in Oshtemo Township to a private bidder, as originally planned.
The sale had originally been discussed at a meeting last week, which had caused division among the board members.
The county was collecting bids for those interested in purchasing nearly 58 acres of undeveloped land along KL Avenue, adjacent to the KL Landfill.
The commission received five bids and the highest bidder was a private citizen, offering to pay $370,000 cash. The names of the bidders were not disclosed so to prevent bias when choosing.
County administrator Tracie Moored recommended that they accept the highest bidder’s offer, because the county could really use the cash amid the pandemic, but the offer was turned down because Oshtemo Township also wants the land.
Commissioner Meredith Place says they want to turn it into some type of green space. “We could be preserving it but also receiving cash from a township,” she explained.
Oshtemo officials submitted a late bid just 15 minutes before the county commission meeting Tuesday night. The township’s original bid was $330,000, but they explained that they would match the winning bid, as long as they could get a two year option to pay for it.
But even Commissioner John Gisler, who represents the township, said it was bad business to turn away a winning bid.
“The majority of us don’t seem to think that the integrity of the county is really on the line here,” Gisler said, “I feel pretty strongly that it is.”
As a result of the decision to table the matter, they decided to reopen the bidding until 5 p.m. last Friday.
During a virtual meeting Tuesday, Commissioners discussed the sale after fielding public comments. Commissioners said that a deed would be added into the purchase to prevent the land from being split up for property use. They said it would also be part of the agreement.
Commissioners said they would be in favor of that purchase agreement, rather than the one with Oshtemo Township.
“That is my biggest concern and my biggest desire, making sure that this property is preserved, that the green space is preserved,” Commissioner Julie Rogers said. “I would love to see a public park, but there are frankly a lot of attachments and hoops on the second proposal.”
She added that fiscal restraints would make her inclined to go with the first agreement.
“I will go with the will of the board, but I am interested in making sure that this property is not sub-divided and sub-divided, whether it’s the current purchaser or one five, ten, twenty years down the road.”
Commissioner Zach Bauer also said that he would be in favor of the first agreement.
“I will be voting to support the first proposal,” Bauer said. “It includes everything that we want. It includes money that we need to balance the budget, it includes the money that we need to continue to have important services to our most vulnerable in this community, and it will continue to preserve the land as it is right now. That is what we wanted, that’s what we asked the buyers to do, and we’ve literally gotten everything that we want.”
He emphasized that the budget deficit make the sale all the more important.
Commissioner Meredith Place even went as far as calling the sale to the private bidder as a “win-win-win” during the meeting.
“It’s great to see this come to a final end, and that the end result is going to be positive for I think everyone involved,” Place said.
The motion to sell to the original highest bidder, the private citizen, was passed in a unanimous vote. The sale was made for $416,000, which was higher than the original bid of $370,000.
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