County’s deal to buy land in Clark officially canceled

Posted 3/23/23

In February 2021, Park County commissioners announced they would be purchasing a roughly 59-acre parcel of land near the Clark landfill. The site off Journey and Windsor roads would serve as a source …

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County’s deal to buy land in Clark officially canceled

Posted

In February 2021, Park County commissioners announced they would be purchasing a roughly 59-acre parcel of land near the Clark landfill. The site off Journey and Windsor roads would serve as a source of gravel and other materials for years worth of road work in the Clark area, while the land could eventually become a part of the landfill.

But the $52,956 deal never closed.

As it turned out, there were questions about whether a railroad company might have held mineral rights on the property, Park County Engineer Brian Edwards said Tuesday. The landowner “could never get that resolved, as far as showing that there are no restrictions or hindrance on the mineral rights,” Edwards said, and “that was kind of a deal killer.”

Without the ability to mine gravel, the property was of no use to the county’s road and bridge division, Edwards said. And for the landfill division, the potential expansion is “really so far out, it’s not worth investing [in] it,” he said.

Though it wasn’t publicized by the county at the time, the deal was scrapped just a couple months after it was struck. The county’s $1,000 deposit was returned in April 2021.

Commissioners formally revoked their purchase agreement on Tuesday, to ensure that landowner Tom Gregory can sell the property to another buyer.

Since Gregory approached the commissioners about purchasing his 58.84-acre parcel in 2020, the Park County Assessor’s Office says its market value has jumped from $48,313 to $84,420. During that same time period, the taxes on the vacant residential property rose from $305 to $540.

While the assessor’s office says the land has nearly doubled in value over the past two years, it’s possible that it will fetch even more on the real estate market: A neighboring and similarly sized parcel is listed for $149,500.

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