The Petersburg Borough can now sell land assessed at up to $1,500,000 without a public vote. The change comes after the proposal passed unanimously at the Borough Assembly meeting on March 18.
The land sale cap had been set at $500,000 since 1990. With inflation, that amount is worth more than $1,200,000 today.
Assembly member Bob Lynn proposed an amendment to the ordinance, which would require information about Borough land sales to be made public. He said he wanted to bring it in line with other Borough land-use laws.
“Is this consistent with other, you know, other ordinances we have?” he asked. “And what do we need to do to make everything essentially consistent across the board, no matter how we sell property?”
The amendment passed unanimously. Now, the Borough must inform the public about the location of the property for sale, its assessed value, any planned development of the land, and, if known, the identity of the buyer and the purchase price.
The amendment also requires an explanation of how the sale is in the best interest of the community if the land is below assessed value. It’s legal for Borough land to be sold below its assessed value if it’s for public good.
“We as an assembly have a responsibility to tell the public both in writing and publicly why we’re intending to sell something if it’s not at full value,” he said.
Debra O’Gara is president of Petersburg’s tribe, the Petersburg Indian Association. She spoke in favor of the cap increase during the public hearing.
“I think that the council is more than capable of approving sales, and really promoting and encouraging development of the lands that the Borough owns,” she said.
The new law comes out of land sale negotiations with the Petersburg Indian Association. The tribe had planned to buy eight acres of borough land along Petersburg’s 8th Street for a housing development. But the land was assessed at well over the $500,000 cap. That meant the sale would have required a public vote during the municipal election in November.
Now that the cap has been raised, the tribe is exploring various housing development options.
