Editor’s note: This Speakout was submitted by Volga resident Dave Graves.
I find it amazing how a group of educated, informed leaders can fail to recognize a bad decision when it is presented to them.
A classic example is the Brookings City Councils attempt to become retail developers. The current spotlight is on the Brookings Marketplace plan at Interstate 29 and U.S. Highway 14. This is wrong in so many ways.
No. 1 The city council should never have bought the land in the first place. My research shows the City of Brookings bought the former 26-acre highway department shop parcel from the South Dakota Department of Transportation for $1.6 million in March 2014. Prime land right off the interstate it seemed like a cant miss opportunity for Brookings.
Time has proven the foolhardiness of investing public dollars in real estate speculation. The only tangible progress is nearly a decade of ownership is razing the remaining structures and mitigating a wetlands issue at city expense.
If private developers would have purchased this property from the DOT, the city could have been collecting property tax in the past decade. Instead it has been a cost to the city and the only return has been a repeated were working on it promise from out-of-town developers.
Whether the marketplace would serve as the location for a grocery store or a floor-covering business, let the private market take charge.
At the councils Nov. 14 meeting, the council unanimously approved a resolution to sell the front 10 acres of the remaining 18.5 acres for a sweetheart price of $1.40 per square foot, the same price it purchased the entire parcel for in 2014. The city administration has defended this price because of the cost to bring utilities to the land. This is not a change in status.
It should come as incredulous to anyone who has paid property taxes in Brookings County in the past decade that someone would be selling land for the same price they purchased it for 10 years ago. Unfortunately, the someone is the City of Brookings that is failing to capitalize on the sale of this public asset.
The city does need to rid itself of this property, but it needs to be sold at market rate. The average comparable land sale price is $5.88 per square foot. That is more than four times than what the city is selling it for.
The city administrator acknowledged at the Nov. 14 meeting that this project has taken a long time, but it takes a long time to get it right.
Apparently it is taking even longer for Brookings City Council to realize a mistake was made 10 years ago and getting it right means exiting the retail development game.
Therefore, I would encourage you support a petition drive to invalidate the resolution that makes this sweetheart deal possible. A petition drive to put the resolution on the ballot is currently underway and requires 651 signatures by Dec. 7.
When approached, I would encourage residents of the City of Brookings to put their name on the petition.
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