City discusses real estate purchase, Cleveland Avenue transition

With all members present, the Lennox City Council met Monday, Dec. 8 at Lennox City Hall. Mayor Danny Fergen and council members heard agenda items including real estate purchase talks and road transitions from the county.

Mayor Fergen asked for any additions to or changes to the agenda. City Administrator, Nate Vander Plaats asked for Ordinance 664 to be pulled from consideration and moved to the next meeting. He also asked for a real estate purchase to be added to old business. 

Vander Plaats provided an update on the real estate purchase he added to the agenda. 

“I did have a phone call with Ron Weber, who’s fairly familiar with real estate in Lennox, and was able to talk through with him some of the options and ideas last week and through those discussions figured the house isn’t listed at what I would offer for the house. The process of moving it and auctioning it off is a possibility. Tyson’s got some more information on that, but you can expect to see a loss probably around $200,000 on this project,” Vander Plaats said. 

Vander Plaats asked the council to consider not what the property is worth, but how much it is worth to the city to have as a park. Alderman Lauren VanDriel asked if before the city made an offer if there was a way to have a house mover come view the property. 

“It’s something I’d probably make contingent on closing,” Vander Plaats responded. 

Alderman Rob Peterson asked if there was another lot the city owned that the house could be moved to. 

“No, in fact, the lot that we were planning on for LADC has utilities running through it, so we may have to find a different spot for that house as well,” Vander Plaats said.  

Vander Plaats also asked for direction on where the money for the project would come. 

“We need to decide what we’re going to do long term with the tennis courts, that’s getting dilapidated and we either need to invest in getting it usable or decide if that space is better suited for something else,” President Chad Swier added. 

“In the event that we did purchase it and we did not move forward with developing it, what did we agree on that would be the price of the property if we were to sell off a portion maybe back to commercial,” asked Laura Thiesse.  

“You could sell it off as commercial, if you put all three lots together, you’re probably looking a little over $100,000” Vander Plaats responded. 

Due to a lack of a motion, the agenda item did not move forward.

The council was asked to discuss a Cleveland Avenue Agreement in which the City and County have discussed the transition of Cleveland Avenue from a county highway to a city street with the proposed rezoning of the Opheim Addition. 

“This is something that has been in the works for a few months with a subdivision of the Opheim land, the City annexed about 40 acres of land on the West side of Cleveland Avenue. To the North of that area, we’ve got several unannexed properties on that side of Cleveland that are also served by city utilities. The majority of the land budding Cleveland Avenue is either annexed or served by the City of Lennox utilities already. With the potential development of the Opheim addition and the Creekside addition, it would be beneficial to both properties to have additional access to that roadway,” Vander Plaats said. 

The current County regulations do not permit new accesses under 1000 feet from existing accesses and in order to provide secondary access the city would need to manage the access. 

“This agreement specifies the process of transferring the roadway from Lincoln County to the City of Lennox. A key provision is the County would need to perform a mill and overlay project prior to acceptance,” he said. 

President Swier asked far North the rezone would cover.

 “All the way to Boynton” Vander Plaats said. 

“As these two developments are in the early stages, I think being able for them to set it up most advantageous to everybody makes sense. I think getting this access is positive for us,” Swier said. 

Mayor Fergen advised Vander Plaats to keep moving forward with the transition.