Yikes! And yes, you read that right.
The bombshell at yesterday’s meeting of the Wicomico County Council: Rick Pollitt wants to buy 5 acres at the site of the former "Salisbury Mall" for additional parking for the Civic Center at a "prime development" price. Do you think that the land is worth even half that amount? Councilman McCain, a professional appraiser, appears to be the only member of the Council who thinks that a current appraisal is not needed.
Not all that long ago, the owner held an auction to sell the site and received no serious bids. And that was before the real estate bubble burst. Another "prime development" site, the former Hearne property on South Division Street and Dykes Road, is scheduled for foreclosure sale today. Whatever the value of land in Salisbury a year ago, it is much lower now.
And there is another significant issue – unless the former mall site handles the "stormwater runoff" from the parking lot, how will that be done under the tougher regulations that the State of Maryland has recently imposed. What if the mall owner is unable to perform an agreement in that regard? Can the stormwater simply be put into the City’s drainage system or dumped into the river behind the Civic Center (more flooding in the City Park, for sure)?
Fortunately, the Council has deferred taking any action on this nonsense, but it could be back on the agenda soon. And in the meantime Ricky will surely deploy his taxpayer paid spokesman, Fineran, to try to whip up support along with Gary Mackes.
33 comments:
any information about the $6 million dollars worth of budget cuts they were suppossed to decide on?
Thank goodness we have people like Prettyman and Hollaway looking out for us taxpayers.While watching PAC14 it was these two that brought fourth the concerns that swayed the other council members votes.
your gonna buy a parking lot, but you cant afford anymore police.. ok, that makes sense........
You can buy waterfront property at 300k an acre.
For comparison, in the time period of 12/15/08 - 12/15/09, there were 4 Commercial/Improved property transactions in Wicomico County. 3 of the parcels had municipal water & sewer.
The 3 comparable sales reflect an average selling price of $181,919.33 per acre for improved commercial property in Wicomico County.
Curious as to why the County would consider paying a 56% premium over fair market value?
this is ridiculous...The Civic Center brags about being its own source of revenue; however, they can't purchase the parking lot with its own revenue? What ever happened to the talks about building a new Civic Center? If they are still planning on trying to build a new one then wouldn't this be a waste of money? I just don't get it! They have been operating this facility for decades and, granted, they have usually used the mall parking lot for overflow; however, whenever I go to events at the Civic Center, the side lot along North Park Dr is seldom ever filled and unless there is a big football game on Friday nights the County Stadium parking lot is seldom used AND the Wicomico High School student parking lot is seldom used AND the Wicomico High School baseball field parking lot is seldom used! All these County owned properties in close proximity of the Civic Center and they have to spend $300,000/acre for 5 acres of parking?! That's $1.5 million total aka 1/4 of the budget deficit PLUS the cost of repaving and striping! Just the cost of the property could save more than 42 county employee jobs paying $35,000/year! Something better can be arranged and that's for certain!
I got some ocean front property in Arizona for sale!!!!!
This is absolutely ridiculous. He wants to drain all the reserves the county has and then proposes to buy this property for that price. He should just wait a little longer and the piece will be up for auction again. Is he really that arrogant or that uneducated to think that the community wouldn't be outraged Wow politicians in this community are an absolute joke!
Crazy, let's get our priorities straight. Parking lot? With all the crime going on? Ridiculous. Pollitt, think reasonable here. We in Salisbury DO NOT CARE about a parking lot. WE WANT TO BE SAFE!!! Do you get that message???
As always FOLLOW THE MONEY. WHo stand to get rich off of this little scheme?
10:27-
This just in:
today the Hearne property was sold at forclosure (to the lender) for just 4 Million; there were no outside bidders. That's about 50 acres -- so, go figure, and then tell Ricky how much per acre.
Mr. or Ms. 10:27-
But the old mall land is now vacant, so it is worth even less than "improved commercial property."
Thank goodness we have Joe Holloway and Stevie Prettyman on the Council, to offset McCain, the "professional appraiser".
Someone must be getting some very nice lining in their pockets.
The part of the mall site near the Civic Center is the least valuable part of that land because of poor access from the major streets -- Beaglin Park Drive, Mt. Hermon Rd & Route 50 -- and also because of the congestion when there is a big crowd at the Civic Center. It's not very good for stores or residential use.
It is probably worth less than $100,000 per acre, and Pollitt wants to pay 3 times that.
Can you say "idiot"?
When has any true democrat ever had any concern for what something will cost now or especially in the future.When you have spent your life in the public sector with no perception of what an expense is or no knowledge or intent to ever cut or reduce them this is the result.
Gary Mackes runs Wicomico County, folks, and Pollitt won't stop him.
Let's hope that Holloway and Prettyman can get 2 more votes in time to get this out of LA-LA Land.
What so you Gail and Sheree?
Where is VOICE (Don Coffin and friends) when we really need them?
Who is Gary Mackes?
But it's not our money and it's for the children. How could we not do this deal right now?
If SMA LLC thinks this land is worth $300,000 per acre, I think it's time for a tax reassessment.
New storm water regs will make the cost to develop this land even more expensive, making the land itself even cheaper.
Natelson & Dzalman strike again.
11:55-
Can you "google"?
Pollitt takes money from the employees. Makess ssthem have a furlo day (no Pay), he cant afford the crossing guards for our childrens safety BUT asll of a sudden we can afford an over priced piece of property that we dont need. Use the parking at the school which we already own. I havent seen the need for that much more parking for anything held at the civic center. Get real and act like you have any sense left.
Gail/Holloway please streighten them out. A swift kick in the butt is recomended.
only if we get to bury he and the council under it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11:56
Right on. The old mall site is currently assessed for about $40,000 per acre, so if Pollitt's price is right, they should be paying almost 8 times as much in taxes to both the City of Salisbury and Wicomico County.
Doesn't everyone know that Gary Mackes is Matt Creamer's favorite.
Why does everyone want to bend over for these two real estate goons from Baltimore? I don't get it.
12:07, right on! Outrageous overpayment from occasional parking need for those too lazy to walk an extra 10th of a mile so our kids can get killed on the way to school.
Most messed up priorities I have ever seen in my life! Fools!
Angry Mom Mom
That will go perfectly with the 10k per acre they paid for the park land on Levin Dashiell Rd.What a bargain for lake front property!Joe you should go take pictures or better yet wait till next week and take pictures of our new county ice skating rink
Why not buy all the land and build a new Library and a new larger Civic center? And if there is still land a water park / pool. Maybe an indoor year round ice skating rink. And I'm sure we could fund from the leftover money from the stimulus program. Think of all the jobs this would create!!!!
The stomrwater management system for this is in accordance with the new ESD regs. This is achieved by using a mixture of microbioretention facilties and infiltrators. The result will be an identical discharge as it would for a site of this size in wooded condition (as opposed to its current discharge of all impervious). So, as a result, the city's drainage system would benifit if this were to be approved and constructed.
12:38 you're right about those to lazy to walk that little extra from stadium,high school or ballfield. Must be the same people that can't go one or two parking spaces to place a grocery cart in the cart holders. Plus the old mall parking lot on St. Alban side has become 18 wheeler haven. I saw five parked there a couple nights ago. On my way home today, someone was there powerwashing the rig. Maybe we should put in parking meters for the trucks:-)
Hey, nothing wrong with truckers. Especially since they aren't allowed to park in ANY neighborhood in Wicomico county. The closest area to park is at the weigh station since the "inspectors" are in the know about the moronic rules put in place. It's not a glamorous job, but it pays better then most in Salisbury(due to artificial wage suppression by the Good ol' Boys). Pollitt is a moron for wanting to pay 300K for that land. Quite frankly, the old Civic Center should be extensively RENOVATED and expanded. It'd save atleast hundreds of thousands of dollars, and with todays construction tech, it'd be as good as new. Not like it actually is fiscally sound to even renovate, since it brings in next to nothing in revenue in the first place. I'd turn the old mall parking lot into a municipal park. baseball fields, soccer fields, skate park, etc. Low construction and mantainenence costs, and it'd get a lot of use. Since it's in an open area, it'd be very easy to patrol it to avoid punks taking over. But, Salisbury will once again screw this up. They have no idea how to plan for the future.
Pollitt is proposing to use state funds to purchase this land. It won't cost the citizens of Wicomico one red cent. Free land for civic center parking, can anybody beat that price?
Thanks 9:18...after all the rantings of people who have no idea what they are talking about,finally a sensible post.
State open space funds are being used for the purchase.By law those funds cannot be used for any other purpose...so all the "suggestions" about using the money for police etc etc are from totally uninformed people.
The Civic center has been using that parking area for decades because the old mall was essentially defunct.Those parking areas are needed for larger events and if the property is not acquired,once it is developed,that parking goes away.
Additionally,as I recall, the citizens commission recommended an eventual expansion of the exisiting site as it is the most economic means of enlarging and moderninzing the facility so that it remains viable well into the future....so it is,in fact, in the best interest of local taxpayers over time to asquire the land.
What is at issue and what Mrs Prettyman and Mr Holloway rightfully pointed out is that the established price is too high given the severe downturn in values over the past year....neither of them said that protecting that parking was not a good idea.
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