2003-11-17 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

8 Mr. Cox said he found the report incredibly informative and said it was backed by good research and good data. Ms. Richards said the increase in foster care for Charlottesville continues to be perplexing. She said she would like to better understand why foster care in Charlottesville exceeds other communities. nd ORDINANCE : CONVEYING CASTALIA STREET RIGHT - OF - WAY (2 reading) Mr. Brown explained that the ordinance before Council on second r eading conveys the property to the Kasters for $3 per square feet. Mr. Brown said that he looked at some prior instances of property conveyance, but there was not a great deal of consistency regarding charging for property. He said a plat was received to day which shows a possible conveyance of 1,341 square feet which would square off the lot. Ms. Richards offered a substitute motion to convey the property as indicated in the plat dated November 13, 2003 as parcel X without compensation to the City. Mr . Brown noted that the ordinance does not specify the amount of property. Mr. David Toscano, an attorney representing the Kasters, said he was just faxed the plat today. He said there is no City encroachment on the Kasters lot. Mr. Caravati seconded M s. Richards' substitute motion. Mr. Schilling said he would like to read a letter from Mr. John Schochet into the record. He prefaced the reading by noting that Council has just been presented with information that the City ended last fiscal year being $1.2 million in the hole. He said this is no time to be giving land away. Mr. Caravati objected to Mr. Schilling reading the letter. Mr. Schilling read the following: "Dear Members of the City Council, I am a Charlottesville city resident and a law student at the University of Virginia. I wrote each of you last week regarding the proposed Castalia Street conveyance due to be voted on at the City Council meeting on November 17. I had planned to speak about the conveyance at the meeting. However, s ince Jeanne Cox has informed me that public comment on the matter is closed, this letter contains the substance of the remarks I had planned to deliver verbally. Put simply, the city owns $3750 worth of land that Jeffrey and Karen Kaster want conveyed to them. Clearly, as City Attorney Craig Brown recommends in the Agenda Memo for the November 17 meeting, the 1250 square feet of city land should be conveyed to the Kasters. Rather than giving free land to the Kasters, however, the city should sell them t he land for its market value: $3750. Mr. Brown describes the budgetary impact of the $3750 as “minimal.” Having gone through the process of budgeting the city’s resources, I am sure that the council understands that $3750 is enough to make a difference, even if only a modest one, in the kinds of services that the city can provide. I urge you to think of the $3750 in terms of how many library or school books it can buy or how many potholes it can fill. City land is a public resource, and the city should not give it away when it can sell it and put the proceeds to good use that benefits the public. The Kasters are asking that the city donate to them 1250 square feet of city - owned land so that they can turn around, sell the land – for value – and pocket the proceeds themselves. This request strikes me as silly on its face, particularly given that the Kasters waited to ask for $3750 worth of free city land until their house went on the market.