The Council approved the FY 2012 - FY 2016 Capital Improvement Plan that includes funding for the design of a storm water treatment project west of Shiloh Road and south of King Avenue. The project will be located at the confluence of Hogan’s Slough and the Shiloh Drain on land currently owned by Yellowstone County. This land must be purchased by the city for this project. The project concept was presented to council at the July 19, 2010 work session. The project will help treat storm water from the two waterways by creating a wetlands detention and sedimentation/clarification basin to help clean the water while it is detained.

The Public Works Director and Deputy Director met with the County Commissioners and they expressed interest in selling this property to the City for a total cost of $512,797.50. An appraisal by Rutherford and Assoc., Inc sets a value for the land of $10,700 per acre, or a total of $695,500  The size of the property will be 65.925 acres after replatting is complete, which is expected by the end of April.  After platting, the land will be described as Lot 5A, Block 1 of Amended Lot 5, Block 1, Long Subdivision. Yellowstone County will retain the remainder of the lot for its junk vehicle storage area.

A comparative market analysis was also completed for this parcel by Yellowstone Group Realtors showing a value of $15,000 per acre for the non-flood zone areas. No value was given for the flood zone acreage. The county GIS department has estimated that there are 18 acres of flood zone areas in this parcel. This results in an estimated value of $718,075 for the non-flood zone acreage on this parcel. The County Commissioners have indicated they support this project since it will treat storm water flowing from county land as well as land from the city and the flood zone areas are a critical piece for that treatment.

The City Council may :

• Approve the resolution authorizing the City to purchase this land and for the Mayor to execute necessary documents.
• Do not approve the resolution authorizing the City to purchase this land and the project will not be constructed. If the project is not constructed staff will be required to find different mechanisms for treating the storm water from the Shiloh Drain and Hogan’s Slough.
   

Funding for the purchase of this land will be from Storm Drain Funds.  The land purchase is the first step for this project. The approved Fiscal Year 2012 CIP includes $250,000 for the design and to develop cost estimates for this project. Once costs are known, the Public Works department will add construction for this project into a future year for the CIP. Costs for design and ultimately construction will use storm sewer funds.

Staff recommends that Council approve the resolution authorizing the purchase of this land from Yellowstone County for $512,797.50.