Hamlet officials are still sorting through the legal technicalities of getting a home built on a piece of town-owned land. The town council wants to accept sealed bids and sell the property at Lincoln and Pearl streets to a potential home-builder.
But Town Attorney Martin Bedrock told council members Wednesday that how the town goes about doing that depends on its ultimate goal. “Is the purpose of the sale of this property to promote an economic development project?” he asked council members. “You consider just building a residence on that property or having a residence built on that property is an economic development project?”
“Absolutely, we would,” replied Council President Dave Kesvormas.
“Okay, okay. So then we can sell it pursuant to this ordinance, which is 36-1-11-4.2,” Bedrock explained.
The statute requires that the town get two appraisals and suggests that the property be sold for at least the average of the two. Council Member Brian Earnest said that could make it hard for the town to offer the land at a discount. “I don’t know anybody that’s going to want to buy it and put a house on it and not get any discount on the value of the land,” Earnest said. “We’re trying to sell land now. We’re basically not trying to promote any building. We’re not giving them any incentive to build.”
But Bedrock didn’t think the law required the town to use the average as a minimum sale price. “It doesn’t say ‘shall.’ It says ‘may,'” he pointed out.
The idea of refunding the purchase price once a home is built to the town’s specifications was revisited, and suggestions were also made about discounting certain fees or offering a credit on the water bill.
As a next step, council members directed Clerk-Treasurer Kristina Pitts to continue trying to get appraisals, and Kesvormas offered some suggestions about where to look. Meanwhile, council members plan to finalize some specifications, such as the square footage, at an upcoming meeting. They stressed that their ultimate goal is to get the property back on the tax rolls and encourage future home development.
