After more than a year of controversy, the city of Eugene has agreed to buy 40 acres in the Amazon Creek headwaters for $1.6 million, City Manager Jon Ruiz said Tuesday.
That's far more than what the city could have bought the land for four years ago, but far less than a recent asking price.
The property, owned by Aurora-based developer Joe Green, is a hilly, forested parcel between Dillard Road and Nectar Way, near East and West Amazon Drive.
The purchase will be complete on Aug. 15, Ruiz said.
The $1.6 million represents a windfall for Green, who bought the property just four years ago for $325,000. Earlier this year, he had asked the city for $3.4 million.
The purchase came about principally from the persistent effort of mainly south Eugene residents who want to protect the parcel - along with 26 nearby acres owned by Martin and Leslie Beverly - from development.
The city has yet to reach a deal with the Beverlys.
Mayor Kitty Piercy said the purchase, to be partly funded by the city's 2006 parks and open space bond measure, will protect valuable natural space.
She thanked a committee that she appointed earlier this year to recommend ways to acquire the Green and Beverly properties.
"My two objectives all along have been to preserve this piece of the Amazon Creek headwaters property for future generations and to do so while honoring the voters' intent for all the uses of the parks bond funds," Piercy said. "This acquisition achieves both of those purposes. I greatly appreciate the ad hoc advisory committee for helping to clarify the issues and also the staff's work as good stewards of public resources in successfully negotiating this purchase."
The $1.6 million will come from three city sources in about equal amounts of nearly $500,000 apiece, Ruiz said. They are: parks impact fees - also known as systems development charges - paid by developers; storm water fees paid by all property owners; and the 2006 parks and open space bond measure.
Nearby residents for years have wanted the city to buy the land to protect it from development, but previous tries by the city at much lower asking prices failed.
The issue became particularly controversial during the past 15 months, as Piercy and half the City Council pursued the acquisition over the objections of the other half of the council.
Critics questioned whether the property was worth the proposed price and whether it was appropriate to use the 2006 parks and open space bond measure for the acquisition.
Earlier this year, Green had asked for $3.4 million for his property.
Some of those who were critical of the acquisition at $3.4 million said they were glad that the purchase price is lower, partly because it will not deplete the bond measure funds that were set aside for open space acquisitions elsewhere.
North Eugene Councilor George Poling, who previously had objected to the purchase, said he now can live with it.
"It puts this issue to rest, gets us the property, and we are not completely draining all of the money out of the parks bond measure that we passed two years ago," he said.
Poling said he hopes that some of the rest of the parks bond measure proceeds will help build a large park in the Santa Clara area, something that the city had promised to deliver with the 1998 parks and open space bond measure.
The city had tried to buy the 40 acres from the previous owner, Munir Katul, but failed to agree on a price.
After Green bought the property in 2004 for $325,000, the city, at the continued urging of nearby residents, offered to buy it from Green for $430,000. But Green replied that he wanted $600,000. The city rejected that as too expensive.
Former mayor Jim Torrey, who is running against Piercy in the November election, had called for a vote of the public to approve the acquisition. On Tuesday, he said he still has concerns about the purchase, even at the lower price.
"I have no problem with the $500,000 coming from the bond measure because that is money that is supposed to be used for acquiring open space," he said.
But Torrey said he was concerned about developer fees for parks being used to pay for the land because those fees are meant to pay for parks in newly developed areas, not to acquire open space in an established area.
Torrey said that if it had not been for criticisms earlier this year over the purchase, the city might have gone ahead and paid more than the $1.6 million.
"Then (the city) would have paid an exorbitant price," he said.
Torrey also questioned making the acquisition a priority given the city's other needs.
"Overnight we can come up with $1.6 million," he said. "How do we do that?"
Green's $3.4 million asking price was based on a city-hired appraisal from a Salem firm that local appraisers thought was flawed and set too high an appraised price.
The difference between Green's purchase and sale price is not all profit.
In addition to paying property taxes on the land, Green spent money on soil testing and planning work in an attempt to win city approval to develop the land.
City planners rejected his development plans, however, citing potential problems with the steep slopes.
