COMMON COUNCIL Minutes 20110927-Memo
CITY OF MUSKEGO
September 27, 2011 Common Council Meeting
To: Common Council
Subject: Acquisition of Property for Park and Open Space Purposes
Date: September 21, 2011
Background Information:
August 2011
The Community Development Department was in receipt a letter addressed to the Council from Attorney Gerald Boisits,
representing two property owners on Little Muskego Lake (Ener-Con/Dilworth and Cherek). The letter extended the
properties for possible city investment for park and open space located on the north side of Janesville Road.
The Committee of The Whole discussed this proposal at their meeting on August 23, 2011 and agreed to first forward the
proposal onto the Parks and Recreation Board before formally making any further determinations.
September 12, 2011
The Parks and Recreation Board met on September 12, 2011 to answer the following question: Is the Parks and
Recreation Board still interested in the city pursuing the purchase of land proposed to be used for a public park? The
Board allowed public comments and ultimately passed a motion to approve (5-1) that the Board is still interested per their
adopted Parks and Conservation Plan.
September 27, 2011
A Resolution of Necessity is on for consideration for the Common Council tonight. Per past practice, an approval of a
resolution of necessity by the Council would only allow city staff to begin the appraisal process of the properties in
question. The City would follow the State condemnation process in that the city would get an appraisal and would also
pay for the property owner’s appraisals. A mutually agreed upon selling price would be sought during this process. The
next step would include city staff coming back to Council for discussion and approval of an offer to purchase for the
properties.
It should be clear that an approval of the resolution of necessity does not approve the purchase of the properties but just
outlines the intent to explore the purchase of the properties. Actual purchase of the properties would still have to come
before Council at a later date.
Should the Council approve the resolution of necessity the Council would be stating that they are authorizing initial costs
to pay for appraisal costs and various attorney fees. Staff estimates that costs to get to an offer to purchase discussion may
be about $25,000. This estimate is based on recent appraisal and attorney costs the City had with the Borst property
acquisition earlier this year.
The resolution of necessity is written like the previous necessity resolutions the Council has passed in the past two years
in that it clearly states the following about the condemnation process:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That it is not the intention of the City of Muskego to utilize actual condemnation for the
purchase of the properties in Exhibit A. The resolution of necessity is a mechanism to start the purchase process only. If a
willing seller/willing buyer purchase agreement cannot be made between the parties initially, the City of Muskego will not
pursue the ultimate condemnation process, as this procedure is not the method approved by the Common Council for this
property unless the Council takes further action to approve condemnation.
Land Proposal
The proposed lands to be sold were originally provided by Attorney Boisits letter in August (attached herein). Since that
time Attorney Boisits has provided the City with an updated map based on a few comments Alderman had at the first
meeting. The new map now shows portions of the western- and eastern-most lake frontage as under private ownership.
However, the city could still purchase this area for use via a public easement purchase. This was done based on a couple
comments from the Alderman at the previous COW meeting. The easements would cost the city less and would still
enable the maintenance of the lake frontage to occur from one entity.
In all, an approval of a resolution of necessity would allow staff to finalize the exact area to be appraised and those
boundary lines would be similar to the new attached map. As with the Borst property earlier this year, actual property
areas appraised are subject to change during the purchase process but at least Council has a good idea of the initial area to
be appraised.
Future Costs
Overall, the appraisals will determine true market value. However, please find below the current assessments for the lands
in question, which should give a glimpse to what costs the city may see for a future purchase price of the lands. The two
middle parcels may be purchased almost as a whole, thus they have current full assessments of $1,788,400 & $1,864,900.
Costs for the easement areas shown on the new map cannot be determined without actual appraisals but should be a
smaller percentage of the land assessment costs. The current land assessment costs of these two outer parcels are $594,400
& $663,000.
Improvement
TAX KEY # OWNER NAME Land Value Value Total Value
2193.970.029 MIKE DILWORTH $594,400 $710,100 $1,304,500
2193.970.029 MIKE DILWORTH $651,300 $1,137,100 $1,788,400
2193.970.030 CHEREK $663,000 $1,201,900 $1,864,900
2193.970.033 GARDETTO $663,000 $1,302,100 $1,965,100
New Map Submitted
Original Map Submitted