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by Lisa A. Abraham, Blade staff writer
The Blade (Toledo, OH)
04-07-2000
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner offered to cut $800,000 off the city's asking price for the Fallen Timbers Battlefield land yesterday, but said Lucas County, the Toledo Area Metroparks, and the state need to get moving and come up with the cash because the city won't wait much longer.
The mayor said the land was appraised at $7.3 million for the city, and he is willing to sell it for $6.5 million, possibly a little less, as a gesture of the city's willingness to get the historic project moving.
"We just don't want to sit on our duffs and not act ... We want to be proactive on this and I just don't see proactivity coming," Mr. Finkbeiner said. "The $800,000 is our good-faith effort."
The mayor said the project is faltering from lack of leadership and said he would like to see the land deal completed by July 1. He sent Governor Taft a letter stating the city's offer and urging completion of the purchase of the land.
"If it doesn't happen soon, I'm not going to sit on a parcel of land this valuable," he said.
So far, the state has promised $2 million and Maumee $500,000 toward the land purchase. The mayor said he would like to see the county and the Metroparks to come up with at least $1 million each, and he believes the state can contribute more. He wants to see the federal government make a commitment of money.
Sandy Isenberg, president of the county commissioners, said it is not up to the mayor to tell other governments how to spend their money.
"A million is outrageous because I don't thing the mayor is being reasonable on the price of the land," she said, and added that the mayor's asking price is out of line with two of the three appraisals.
In addition to the city's appraisal, two appraisals for the state valued the land at $3.6 million and $3.8 million.
Mayor Finkbeiner said the property, zoned commercial and residential, is the only undeveloped parcel on the I-475 corridor. The mayor disagrees with the state's appraisal, which he said examined a five-year-old sale of one other commercial property. The city's appraisal, he said, examined 45 parcels of industrial, commercial, and residential land in Lucas and Wood counties.
"We reject the state of Ohio's findings, and we will never accept the state's appraisal -- and I'll underscore never," the mayor said.
Mayor Finkbeiner said the city has signed a deal to sell a 10-acre tract of nearby Toledo-owned land in Maumee to North Star Plumbing Supply Co., a Toledo business that is moving out of the city to expand.
The company is paying $450,000, or $45,000 per acre, he said.
At $6.5 million, the city would be selling the 187-acre battlefield site for approximately $34,750 an acre.
Art Weber, a spokesman for the Metroparks, said his agency does not plan to contribute any money toward the purchase of the land, but expects to spend at least $1 million as the targeted operators of the site.
"We've pledged a lot of money. We are pledged to be the long-term operators of the site. We will staff it, improve it, and open it to the public. That's the bigger expense," he said.
"Clearly that will be more than a maintenance person and a lawnmower."
Mr. Weber called the mayor's request for the Metroparks to contribute at least $1 million "absurd," and noted the two lower appraisals of the land.
"There's obviously a lot of conversation that still needs to happen," he said.
The city spent $14 million in 1987 to purchase approximately 1,200 acres in what was then Monclova Township. The city intended to annex the land to Toledo, but after a lengthy court battle, the move was not allowed.
Much of the land, including the Fallen Timbers site, has since become part of Maumee.
Over the years, the city has sold off all but about 400 acres of the property.
In 1995, the 187-acre site in Maumee was identified as the location of the 1794 Battle of Fallen Timbers, in which forces led by Gen. Anthony Wayne defeated an alliance of American Indian tribes. The resulting Treaty of Greenville in 1795 opened much of Ohio and the Northwest Territory for settlement.
Last year, local officials and historians successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress to declare the battlefield a National Historic Site. The act calls for the land to be put to the "highest and best use."
Many planners consider the highest use to be a national park. While the mayor does not disagree, he believes the best use of the land for the people of Toledo would be to sell it for the best price.
The mayor said he is tired of officials trying to "low-ball" the price and make him look like the bad guy for trying to sell it for what it is worth.
Ms. Isenberg said the mayor is just trying to get as much money as he can for the land because the city is not in good financial shape. "He spent all of the city's money and now he apparently wants to spend ours," she said.
"We have obligations and we have priorities, and we have capital issues we have to deal with just like any public entity, and we will deal with the battlefield and, when appropriate, we will contribute," she said. "It's not up to the mayor to tell us what to contribute."
Ms. Isenberg said Toledo residents make up 70 per cent of the population of Lucas County. Those same residents paid for the land in 1987 and, by asking the county for so much money, the mayor is in effect asking for city residents to pay for the land again.
"We have never said we will not participate. We have said when the price is reasonable and appropriate, we will participate at a level the board of county commissioners chooses, not the city of Toledo," she said.
The mayor said the city would use money from the sale of the land to develop industrial parks to retain small business, improve the city's infrastructure, and help pay for the establishment of city development deals, such as the Docks on the east side of the Maumee River or the Erie Street Market.
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