Councilman nixes deal to sell parcel

Jeffrey Libby

Wednesday, May 9, 2001 | 10:05 a.m.

A one-third-acre parcel remained in city hands Tuesday after Boulder City Councilman Bryan Nix abandoned an agreement and offered to convey the land to a developer at no charge.

The Boulder City Council had publicly noticed its intent to sell the one-third- acre right-of-way to developers Roger Dieleman and Violet Tracht for $43,000. It would have allowed them to connect a proposed 51-lot subdivision overlooking Lake Mead with a residential street.

City Attorney Dave Olsen said that although the action itself might be "legal, moral, right and fair" from a technical standpoint, he said some might consider the shift from a price of $43,000 to nothing a "material change."

The city originally proposed selling an additional 0.997-acre parcel as part of the deal. But Councilman Bill Smith at the time complained the sale circumvented an ordinance that requires voter approval for parcels of an acre of more. The council dropped that proposal in April, saying the issue had become too "politicized."

The council on Tuesday voted 3-1 to have staff draw up a new agreement for the May 22 council meeting that would convey the land at no cost to developers. Councilman Joe Hardy voted against the measure. Councilman Bill Smith was absent.

Nix argued that when the city built Quartzite Road, engineers swung wide of the undeveloped property "for whatever reason," creating a two-acre, city-owned parcel that landlocked the privately-owned land.

"We should not extort another $40,000 out of them (the developers) for that access," Nix said.

Hardy explained why engineers swung wide of the property. At the time, engineers were planning Quartzite Road, Hardy said, and they could not identify a land owner to negotiate a payment for the road improvements.

"They did not have to pay access fees going along Quartzite Road" as others did, Hardy said.

Phil Henry, director of the public works department, verified that when road improvement projects benefit the community, the city asks developers to share a percentage of the costs.

The $43,000 fee for the right-of-way amounts to a "cost of doing business," Hardy said.

Nix argued that in some cases the city has not required developers to share costs associated with improvements.

At Mayor Bob Ferraro's prompting, Dieleman confirmed that he had never been included in city discussions of road improvement fees.

As proposed, Dieleman and Tracht will pay the costs of building the road on the right-of-way and then reassign responsibility for its maintenance back to the city. Also on Tuesday the council awarded to Wadsworth Golf Construction a $12.2 million contract to build a 27-hole municipal golf course south of Veteran's Memorial Drive and Adams Boulevard.