PALMER -- Voters will have a chance to decide at the Oct. 5 city election whether Palmer should spend $3 million to buy the 8.7-acre former Matanuska Maid property on South Valley Way.
"It's my firm belief that it's in the best interest of our city to have site control on that land," said city manager Bill Allen.
The four City Council members present at a council meeting this week unanimously approved putting the measure on the ballot. Doing so would help gauge support for the city's plans to develop the land, they said.
The block includes seven parcels, the largest of which is controlled by the state Agriculture Revolving Loan Fund. That's the three-acre former Matanuska Maid site.
Also on that block are a bookstore, a mini-storage business, fuel hauler Crowley Fuel Distributors' site and a parcel formerly used as storage for Matanuska Maid.
Elsewhere on the block, Anchorage attorney Bill Ingaaldson owns 2.5 acres and the former Matanuska Maid creamery warehouse, and Palmer Arts Council owns the former powerhouse building.
Mat-Su Borough 2010 tax assessments for the seven parcels estimate their market value at $1.9 million.
Allen said if voters approve the measure the city shouldn't rush out immediately to begin buying land.
"Time is our friend," Allen said. The longer the city waits to begin buying land, "the better off we will be because we will not be drawing off the funds from the GO (general obligation) bonds," he said.
Allen suggested selling general obligation bonds, which are backed by city tax revenue, to finance the land purchase. He proposed selling bonds with 20-year terms that would begin with interest-only payments for the first five years.
Debt the city incurred to improve the municipal golf course expires in 2015.
Allen suggested several stipulations be made before agreeing to buy any land on the block.
Titles should be clear and transferable to the city, for example, and the property must be proven to be environmentally clean, he said.
Allen added that the City Council should be prepared to drop the deal if key property owners are unwilling to sell.
"If you have a holdout on one or two parcels, you've got to make sure what is remaining is functional," he said.
The land is part of an area Allen and others at the city envisioned turning into a community and conference center.
At the meeting this week, Allen said it would also make a good governmental campus.
"Right now, frankly, I think it's an eyesore in the middle of our town and it does not lend itself to being an attraction to Palmer. But it can be," he said.
Find Rindi White online at adn.com/contact/rwhite or call 352-6709.
By RINDI WHITE
rwhite@adn.com