County panel votes 2-1 to back sale of courthouse campus

A Leland Property Subcommittee of the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners last week reviewed a formal purchase offer for the county’s 2.5-acre courthouse campus in Leland and recommended that the county board accept the offer.

Business partners and longtime Leelanau County residents R. Gene Kelly and James P. Varley have offered to purchase the county’s Leland property for $2.4 million.

The subcommittee is comprised of county board chairman and District No. 6 commissioner Robert Hawley, District No. 7 commissioner Melinda Lautner, and District No. 5 commissioner David “Chauncey” Shiflett, who chairs the subcommittee.

Following a March 28 meeting with Kelly and an attorney for Varley-Kelly Properties, L.L.C., Robert Parker, the subcommittee voted 2-1, with Lautner opposed, to recommend that the county board accept the Varley-Kelly offer.

According to minutes of the subcommittee meeting, Lautner voiced concerns about “all the contingencies” contained in the agreement and “what the county has to do for the buyer.”

The 14-page agreement calls on the county to pay some of the closing costs and also obligates the county to help Varley-Kelly properties apply for state Brownfield Redevelopment grants or loans that will be used to demolish buildings and clean up any environmental contamination on the property.

Earlier this year, the county established its own Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to assist in redeveloping a number of properties in Leelanau County. including the Leland courthouse campus.

Hawley and Shiflett both said they “respectfully disagreed” with Lautner. Hawley said he felt the county was “acting appropriately.”

Shiflett said that, as a licensed real estate agent, his professional opinion was that the county was being offered a “very fair” deal on the property.

Not contained in the purchase agreement is any mention of what might be constructed on the property once ownership shifts from the county to Varley-Kelly properties. The business partners have made verbal assurances that they will generally comply with the wishes of a Leland Township citizens committee, which last year explored various options for the property.

Both Varley and Kelly – and members of the “Leland Options Committee” – have indicated that they hope to see a mix of residential housing on the property, including housing that families with young children can afford to buy. Varley, Kelly and members of the township committee also appear to agree that the Leland River waterfront portion of the property should be free of buildings.

It will be up to Varley-Kelly Properties and Leland Township to work out zoning and planning issues as well as ideas proposed by the township to acquire more land to expand the adjacent Leland Township fire hall. In addition, Leland Township and the buyers will be responsible for working out an agreement over the status of a township-owned riverfront easement for the purpose of drawing water for firefighting.

Leelanau County and Leland Township have already worked out their differences concerning a 100-by-100-foot portion of the property that was to revert to Leland Township under a 1939 deed. During a joint meeting between the township board and county board on March 26, the county board decided to offer the township $127,500 for a “quit claim deed” on the 10,000-square-foot parcel; and the township board accepted the offer.

The full Leelanau County Board of Commissioner is expected to consider accepting the Varley-Kelly purchase offer at the board’s next monthly executive committee meeting on Tuesday, April 10 at 9 a.m. at the River Office Meeting Room in Leland.

Meanwhile, construction is proceeding apace on the new county Governmental Center and courthouse off M-204 in Suttons Bay Township. County officials plan to vacate the Leland property and move into the new facility in Suttons Bay Township sometime in the first half of 2008.