County plans to sell coastal land.Byline: Matt Cooper Matt Cooper may refer to:
An 80-acre tract of dunes on the south side of the Siuslaw River The Siuslaw River (pronounced sigh YOU slaw) is a river, approximately 110 mi (177 km) long, along the Pacific coast of Oregon in the United States. It drains an area of approximately 4560 sq mi (11900 km²) in the Central Oregon Coast Range southwest of the Willamette , opposite the city of Florence Florence, city, Italy Florence (flôr`əns, flŏr`–), Ital. Firenze, city (1991 pop. 403,294), capital of Tuscany and of Firenze prov., central Italy, on the Arno River, at the foot of the Apennines. , will soon be up for purchase, following Lane County's seizure Forcible possession; a grasping, snatching, or putting in possession. In Criminal Law, a seizure is the forcible taking of property by a government law enforcement official from a person who is suspected of violating, or is known to have violated, the law. of the property for nonpayment Non`pay´ment n. 1. Neglect or failure to pay. Noun 1. nonpayment - act of failing to meet a financial obligation nonremittal, default failure - an act that fails; "his failure to pass the test" of taxes. The county has acquired the land via foreclosure foreclosure Legal proceeding by which a borrower's rights to a mortgaged property may be extinguished if the borrower fails to live up to the obligations agreed to in the loan contract. in bits and pieces for unpaid property taxes going back decades, said Jeff Turk See Mechanical Turk. , the county's property management officer. The county plans to put the land up for sale in the coming months and give the revenue to the parks division, which, along with other county departments, has struggled to maintain services against rising costs. Among the county's inventory of tax-foreclosed property up for sale, the parcel is "one of the larger blocks" in recent memory, Turk said. Typically, only small, undesirable parcels and dilapidated buildings end up in county ownership for nonpayment of taxes. Anyone with valuable property usually finds a way to pay off back taxes. The land, which is undeveloped but largely zoned for rural housing, is in Glenada, on the south bank of the Siuslaw, and west of Highway 101. Most of the tract is dunes, and the terrain also includes hilly hill·y adj. hill·i·er, hill·i·est 1. Having many hills. 2. Similar to a hill; steep. hill stretches and ravines. The parcel has already been platted for a subdivision, which will make it simpler to develop, Turk said. "You've already got legal lots, and it's zoned for rural residential," he added. "It would take someone going in there and figuring out how they would lay something out." There's the rub. The area was platted - that is, divided into lots - around the early 1900s, but the county has been foreclosing on individual parcels virtually ever since. Turk speculated that, in many cases, property owners were unable to build houses on the hilly terrain, which has no improved roads. Development would also require installation of power, water and sewage Sewage Water-carried wastes, in either solution or suspension, that flow away from a community. Also known as wastewater flows, sewage is the used water supply of the community. It is more than 99. services, Turk said. But now, would-be buyers may be drawn to the potential of acquiring a large parcel in a single deal, he said. "Nobody's had a chunk like that," he added. "You're talking about ownership of a large portion at once." Although the county hasn't finished its appraisal, Turk said interested buyers haven't been put off by rough estimates of a price of $300,000 to $500,000. The county has designated the land as parkland so that proceeds from a sale go to the parks department. A buyer would still be able to develop it with residential uses, however. Money from the sale of tax-foreclosed property traditionally goes to the county's numerous local taxing districts, such as cities and school districts. However, under the county's new policy, the districts won't receive anything from sales of tax-foreclosed property that has been earmarked for the parks department, Turk said. Representatives for various taxing districts generally haven't objected to the new policy, he added. |
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