Council OKs Agency’s Purchase of 3 Lots

After failing to find a bidder willing to pay enough for three surplus lots on Yorktown Avenue and England Street, the city will sell the property to its own Redevelopment Agency.

The agency will buy the land for $189,000, about $54,000 more than offered by the one private company that bid on the lots, to develop an affordable housing project with Habitat for Humanity.

City Council members voted 6 to 0 Monday to allow the sale.

City officials said the agency has been talking with Habitat about the lots and said the group already is building an affordable housing project on the former city well site on Ronald Road.

Although the agency was not meeting the land’s appraised value of $210,000, it would be able to develop the property quickly and help the city with its affordable housing needs, a staff report noted.