A court decision: what next?
As Asheville’s Mountain Xpress reported, “Judge Marlene
Hyatt has ruled in favor of the Pack family’s lawsuit against the
Parkside land sale, according to attorneys on both sides. However,
further hearings may be necessary to determine the exact status of the
property.”
With any luck this ruling will save the magnolia tree located on the
property in question. Of course, developer Stewart Coleman “owns” the
tree pending a final ruling and could chop it down for grins, but that
seems pretty unlikely. After all, he will presumably have other
projects to present to the city and county and doesn’t really need more
bad press.
Meanwhile, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners Chair Nathan Ramsey has responded to a call from PARC for investigation of the sale of the Parkside property to Black Dog Realty. His reply:
We don't need to conduct an investigation since I believe our Board
understands how this sale happened. First, the city, county and Pack Square Conservancy back in 2001 agreed to a plan for our park with design guidelines for development around the park. This plan included drawings of a completed park and new buildings around the park. Second, the county was contacted by the previous owner of the Hayes & Hopson building on several occasions. A majority of our Board rejected an offer to purchase the H&H
building which I disagreed with at the time. We knew that others could purchase this property and pursue private development of the site.
Third, a short time later the H&H building was sold to Black Dog LLC (Mr. Coleman). Mr. Coleman then approached the county staff desiring to purchase county owned property east of the H&H site. Our staff reviewed the Pack Square Conservancy plans and saw a large multi story building on what they thought to be the exact site the county owned as well as the H&H site. In retrospect, our staff failed to contact the city or Pack Square Conservancy regarding sale of county property referred to as the "old jail" property.
In an attempt to make the plan a reality, our staff recommended selling the property to Black Dog LLC. In retrospect, the Pack Square Conservancy plan should have included survey maps that identified specifically where everything was located instead of artistic drawings. An appraisal was conducted and our Board voted to place the property up for upset bid at the appraised price. The property was advertised according to NC law and no other bids were received.
Fourth, a resolution to sell the property was placed on the consent agenda. At our Board meeting, the Board requesting this item be moved to "new business" from consent. Mike Frue, asst. county attorney, made a presentation to our Board about this proposed land sale. At this meeting, I mentioned that this was the "old jail" property which was adjacent to city/county plaza. All of the commissioners knew or should have known that this property included the alley adjacent to H&H and the "old jail" which was where the Day Reporting Center used to be located. Our Board knew that the purchaser was planning on building a large multistory building on the site. What the commissioners did not know and staff did not inform us of was that this property also included 3100 square feet of parkland. In retrospect our staff should have presented us or we should have requested an aerial map of the property being sold. Also, the commissioners did not know the history of the property including the conveyance from George Willis Pack.
Our staff makes thousands of decisions in the course of their job and in this case, they made several mistakes. Our Board made several mistakes as well. I've tried to lay out the history to show that while many different people made mistakes in judgment and we should all be held accountable for our decisions, I firmly believe our staff was trying to do what was best for the county.
Please contact me anytime if you would like to further discuss this matter.
Best wishes,
Nathan Ramsey
mobile 768-3216
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Ramsey's response fails to address the clear complicity of Michael Frue in driving the sale forward, actively working to thwart opponents of the deal—as revealed in his e-mail of Sept. 20, 2007, reported here.
