The facility will provide 60 beds and skilled care for veterans and will serve the northern Arizona region. It is estimated that this will bring up to 80 new jobs that pay an average wage of $16.77-$19.86 per hour. The City’s contribution is limited to the provision of the land and the soft costs (appraisal, title work, survey work) associated with that provision. The construction costs and operations costs would come exclusively from the state and federal agencies.

A Department of Veteran Services (DVS) representative met with City staff to tour potential locations for the facility. A portion of the City owned land with Assessor Parcel Number (APN) 109-02-001N (Please see attached visual) was the preferred location for the DVS and the only parcel they felt met their requirements. This area is currently used for materials storage and has been impacted in terms of its character. The portion under consideration is eleven (11) acres. Staff recommends, should Council choose to proceed, providing eight acres with the opportunity to expand in the future.

City staff spoke with the Economic Development Administrator in the city of Yuma. They recently authorized the transfer of eight acres of land valued at 1 million dollars to the Arizona Department of Veteran Services.

The city property under consideration is zoned Rural Residential and is listed in the Regional Plan as undesignated per City Council direction provided in the October of 2013 land inventory discussion. It has been a part of a number of adopted plans as well and has been considered both for development and preservation in various contexts. It sits between an existing urban trail (FUTS), electrical easement, the Gemini Drive right of way and an APS substation. There may be a need to preserve some small portion of the parcel for cinder storage efficiencies.

There have not been a large number of sales of similar character in the area recently and staff has not had an appraisal completed at this time. However, there was a sale in July 2013 of a nearby parcel for $1.7M. That parcel was zoned Research and Development and is smaller, but if used to provide a very rough estimate the parcel in question would be between $2.5M and $3M. Should Council provide direction to incur costs, staff will execute appraisals and survey work to provide greater detail for Council consideration. 

There is still discussion regarding the best option for providing the land should Council choose that direction. Providing it through donation would require an ordinance and deed and is the method requested by DVS. The ordinance and the deed would require the property return to City ownership should the project not proceed within a reasonable and defined time period. Should the preferred direction be a long term intergovernmental agreement with the State of Arizona, that would be approved by Resolution and would also contain provisions recapturing the land if the facility is not constructed within a certain time period.  It is not certain that DVS would approve this option.

There have been discussions previously about a process for evaluating land donation requests, however there is not a clear City policy for land donation at this time. The City Attorney is currently looking into any legal issues that could be associated with this transaction.

There are a number of steps to take in the near term to move the project forward while providing Council the information necessary to make final decisions.

Administratively staff will proceed with the following:

* Conduct outreach efforts by meeting with Open Space and Parks and Recreation Commission, local veterans groups and conduct a telephone Town Hall meeting.

* Research any charter and procurement implications of providing the contribution through donating land, leasing land, and or an intergovernmental agreement.

* Work with DVS to determine the additional steps needed to proceed.

* Bring discussion and action items to City Council for consideration as needed to provide appropriate opportunities for public input and to have a final decision on the provision of land.

* Provide information to City Council as needed for their efforts to discuss these items with State and Federal policy makers.