BERLIN– Plans to sell a portion of Heron Park to a local developer came to a halt Monday with a 3-2 vote by the town council to end negotiations.
The Berlin Town Council on Monday voted 3-2 to stop negotiations with Palmer Gillis and Coastal Ventures Properties and to instead have the town move forward with demolition of the dilapidated building on the site on its own.
“I hope the next time we go for bid or proposals for this property that we as a town know what we want,” said Councilman Dean Burrell, one of those who supported ending negotiations.
Since last year, the town has been in an exclusive negotiating period with Gillis, one of two bidders who submitted proposals for property at Heron Park. Though the town in recent weeks narrowed the focus of consideration to just parcel 57, the lot containing the dilapidated processing plant, negotiations with Gillis have been ongoing. After a lengthy work session Monday night, the time for a decision came at the end of the regular council meeting. Town Administrator Mary Bohlen said that in order to meet the deadlines associated with the $500,000 strategic demolition grant the town had for the property, a request for demolition proposals needed to be developed now. Before that can be done, she said officials needed to decide whether they were using the grant to demolish as much of the building as could be demolished or if they were using it to selectively demolish the portions designated by Gillis. Bohlen said it was questionable whether the town would be able to get demolition accomplished in the next 10 months, considering the request for proposals had to be drafted and bids solicited and reviewed.
“I’m very very concerned,” she said. “I’m not going to mince words on this.”
Councilman Jay Knerr, noting that $400,000 worth of sewer EDUs (equivalent dwelling units) accompanied the property, said he didn’t support selling the parcel to Gillis. Councilman Steve Green, however, spoke in support of selling.
“It’s risk versus reward for me. I don’t see parcel 57 as a land of opportunity for the Town of Berlin,” Green said.
Mayor Zack Tyndall said that if the town didn’t take some action it could lose the $500,000 grant.
Burrell referenced the EDUs as well as the fact that Gillis would be getting the benefit of the grant.
“I think we’re just giving this thing away,” he said.
Knerr said the town was at a saturation point with restaurants, one of the proposed uses in Gillis’s development plan.
“He only said restaurants because we told him restaurants,” Green said, referencing the fact that officials had placed restrictions on what Gillis could and couldn’t build on the site.
Knerr said Gillis had been vague about his plans for the site once the initial proposal had been scaled back.
“How would he know what we want?” Green replied.
Councilwoman Shaneka Nichols said Gillis was intelligent enough to know what he wanted for the site.
Green said that it was clear that there were three council members—a majority—who didn’t want to continue negotiations.
Tyndall asked how the council wanted to proceed.
Nichols said the town should demolish the building from the back forward, tearing down what it could afford to with the grant.
“Take off the middle and the back, as much of that as you can, and go from there,” she said.
Tyndall asked where the funding to pay for the cost of demolition would come from once the town spent the $500,000.
“I do not feel comfortable taking money our of our reserves for this project,” he said.
Burrell said, “Then let it sit.”
Councilman Jack Orris said he didn’t support that. Nichols said she just wanted the town to tear down what it could.
“I’m not saying leave it looking like a bomb site,” she said.
Tyndall said that might be what the town ended up with.
Nichols stressed that the members of the public she’d heard from didn’t want to sell the property if it didn’t mean elimination of the $2.3 million in debt associated with the park’s purchase.
Green said he trusted Gillis and didn’t agree with the direction the council was going. He expressed frustration that the town had been presented with a sketch plan from another developer, Berlin property owner Jack Burbage, when officials were in an exclusive negotiating period with Gillis. Referencing recent calls for a committee to study land use of Heron Park, he said parcel 57 could have been sold and the committee could have reviewed best uses for the remainder of the park property.
“I feel like we’re back to where we started.,” he said.
Burrell made a motion to stop negotiations with Gillis and to have the town move forward with using the grant for demolition. The council voted 3-2, with Green and Orris opposed, to approve the motion.
