MONROE - The City of Monroe Community Improvement Committee voted Thursday to postpone for one month the sale of land for a proposed animal shelter in the Honey Creek Industrial Park to the Green County Humane Society Inc. The delay gives members of both parties time to review agreement details.
City Attorney Rex Ewald said many questions came up when he tried to prepare the agreement for a new site and recommended the committee members review the proposed agreement and compare it with the present lease agreement.
Paul Barrett, president of the Humane Society, agreed to the postponement, noting his board would not review the agreement until it meets next Wednesday.
Barrett said the postponement would not interfere with the Society's timeline for fund raising for the land purchase and animal shelter construction.
The committee directed Ewald at a meeting Oct. 7 to prepare an agreement for the possible sale of land in the Honey Creek Industrial Park, with little more direction in its motion than that the sale of land be reversed to the city, or renegotiated, in the event the Society did not build on it within one year.
Ewald said after starting with the definition of reversion rights after one year, he ran some "what if" scenario questions.
Ewald said he came up with ways to address those questions, but he had no basis on which way the committee wanted to handle some situations.
Among the questions were:
• What did the Society have to build? Ewald included an improved site (land and building) value of $150,000.
• What constitutes "good faith" or a binding commitment to finish a structure on the land?
• What if the Society, given a warranty deed, sells the land to someone else? Ewald suggested a restrictive covenant that the land be used only for an animal shelter, without consent to resell.
• What if the city must receive the property back encumbered, with an unfinished structure on it?
• In normal transactions in Tax Increment Fund districts, the city pays for surveying and title insurance, expecting to recoup the costs from future taxes, but the Society is tax-exempt. Would the Society pay for these costs, or would the city make them a cash gift to the Society?
• What changes should occur between the parties at the termination of its present lease? The city owns and pays for upkeep of the present building and pays the utilities. The recurring lease was last updated in 2000.
City Attorney Rex Ewald said many questions came up when he tried to prepare the agreement for a new site and recommended the committee members review the proposed agreement and compare it with the present lease agreement.
Paul Barrett, president of the Humane Society, agreed to the postponement, noting his board would not review the agreement until it meets next Wednesday.
Barrett said the postponement would not interfere with the Society's timeline for fund raising for the land purchase and animal shelter construction.
The committee directed Ewald at a meeting Oct. 7 to prepare an agreement for the possible sale of land in the Honey Creek Industrial Park, with little more direction in its motion than that the sale of land be reversed to the city, or renegotiated, in the event the Society did not build on it within one year.
Ewald said after starting with the definition of reversion rights after one year, he ran some "what if" scenario questions.
Ewald said he came up with ways to address those questions, but he had no basis on which way the committee wanted to handle some situations.
Among the questions were:
• What did the Society have to build? Ewald included an improved site (land and building) value of $150,000.
• What constitutes "good faith" or a binding commitment to finish a structure on the land?
• What if the Society, given a warranty deed, sells the land to someone else? Ewald suggested a restrictive covenant that the land be used only for an animal shelter, without consent to resell.
• What if the city must receive the property back encumbered, with an unfinished structure on it?
• In normal transactions in Tax Increment Fund districts, the city pays for surveying and title insurance, expecting to recoup the costs from future taxes, but the Society is tax-exempt. Would the Society pay for these costs, or would the city make them a cash gift to the Society?
• What changes should occur between the parties at the termination of its present lease? The city owns and pays for upkeep of the present building and pays the utilities. The recurring lease was last updated in 2000.