City land sale approved but not finished
Zoning adjustments necessary before latest city deal is good to go
By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 12:33 PM PST
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| Cars sit in the Hanigan Chrysler Jeep Dodge parking lot off of East Lane in Ontario. A developer from Corvallis is finalizing the sale of the Hanigan lot and also made arrangements to purchase about 1.55 acres of city owned property adjacent to the larger Hanigan land. |
ONTARIO - A number of planning and zoning issues must be resolved prior to the sale of a 1.55 acre parcel of Ontario land to a Corvallis developer, city officials told the Ontario City Council Monday night.
The council approved a resolution Monday to sell a 1.55 acre parcel of city land to developer Darren Dickerhoof, but Sullivan told the council the passage of the resolution approving the sale would only allow the mayor to sign an earnest money agreement, stating the land sale would eventually take place.
At the moment, the land cannot be sold because a property line adjustment must be made between the city’s parcel and the adjacent land it will be added to, currently where Hanigan Chrysler Jeep Dodge is situated.
Mike Hanigan, owner of Hanigan Chrysler, has agreed to sell his 4.75 acres to Darren Dickerhoof, who plans to add the city’s parcel — once the sale goes through — to the Hanigan parcel.
Without a property line adjustment, however, land cannot be transferred from one property owner to another, in this case, the city to Darren Dickerhoof.
Property line adjustments are common, Ontario Planning and Zoning Administrator Even MacKenzie said, adding a property line adjustment changes a common property line between common boundaries but does not create a separate piece of property.
“What complicates this particular case is that we have the Hanigan property, and that has not annexed yet, and the city does not have jurisdiction over that property,” MacKenzie said.
The Hanigan property, for whatever reason, has not been annexed into the city, and is in fact county property, creating a county “island,” MacKenzie said.
Before a lot line adjustment can take place, the Hanigan property needs to be annexed into the city and designated a city zone, in this case general heavy commercial.
At the same time, MacKenzie said, the city will rezone the current city parcel from public land to general heavy commercial because, the city can’t have a property with split zoning.
For Dickerhoof to develop the Hanigan property in the future, he would have to annex it into the city anyway. That’s because the city and the county have an intergovernmental agreement stating the county will not permit development on property “islands” within a city. Consequently, the city cannot allow development unless it has a zoning standard to apply, MacKenzie said.
Dickerhoof indicated at the City Council meeting he would begin annexation procedures shortly after the council approved sale of the land. While Dickerhoof said he did not want to push the city, he indicated if the city did not grant him the sale, he would probably not annex the Hanigan property for a few more years until he was ready to begin developing. Meanwhile, he said, he intends to lease the property to Hanigan until Hanigan’s automall is completed.
After the meeting, MacKenzie said the city was not going to rush the annexation process, leaving that entirely up to the developer.
“We are not going to force them to abide by a timeline,” he said. “It’s really at their discretion, but a number of things can’t happen until they annex. It delays the time they can actually purchase the city property.”
MacKenzie said he does not know Dickerhoof’s complete plans for the combined property, other than he intends to build a retail center.
Dickerhoof told the City Council, ground breaking on the proposed retail center would not begin for another two years or so.
While he has not drawn up design plans including the current city parcel, Dickerhoof told the council at Monday’s meeting he would like to create an attractive-looking property that welcomes people into Ontario on that side of town.
Dickerhoof said, he has spoken with Ontario Parks and Recreation Director Kathy Daly, who also heads up the Ontario greenbelt committee, about the possibility of a trail system running through the property near the river.
He said, however, the discussion was intended to get ideas started, but he did not necessarily mean to pay for any subsequent trails.
