Wasilla City Council will consider the land deal at its regular meeting Monday. Landowner Vicky Palmer said in a January real estate ad for the property that the lots have been home since 1974 to a mechanic shop. She cited retirement as the reason for the sale.
Palmer's Jan. 22 Craigslist ad lists a $300,000 price for the three lots. The City Council will consider an ordinance to pay $234,477. The Mat-Su Borough's assessed value of the land, which is often lower than the actual land value for commercial property, is $184,300.
"We know this is a bargain based on trying to buy other lots downtown over the years. This is a very good price," Wasilla Public Works director Archie Giddings said Friday.
Wasilla planner Jim Holycross said the city doesn't have big development plans for the land. A road project planned by the state Transportation Department might change how traffic flows in the area. The project, which does not yet have construction funding, would turn Main Street into a one-way road going south, and Yenlo Street into a one-way road heading north. The project shouldn't affect the property, although the new traffic flow might change how the downtown land is used, Holycross said.
For now, Giddings said, the land will be paved for parking. The city's downtown area lacks parking, he said. Paving the former auto shop would kill two birds with one stone, capping off the half-acre to prevent contaminants from soaking into groundwater and adding public parking for the library, museum and farmer's market that are all across Boundary Street. If the City Council buys the land, paving will likely happen this summer, he said.
Giddings said contaminants haven't proven to be an issue at the site. City groundwater monitoring wells in the downtown area haven't shown traces of contamination.
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