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Blog Entry 70 of 102 A Journalist's Musings
As a journalist, I don't often have the opportunity to share my opinion. So I thought I'd come over here and share my point of view on matters affecting our community and the state. I'm not afraid to take a stand, and I welcome the conversation that will follow if you tell me your point of view!

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~CastlewoodRanchCouncilman

Town gives long time residents land - FREE
Contributed by: Hank Lacey   on 8/30/2007

At the Aug. 28 meeting of the Castle Rock Town Council six of my colleagues voted to give final approval to an ordinance that makes a gift of 0.07 acres of taxpayer-owned land to a long-time and well-known Castle Rock family.

I voted "no" on this proposal on both first reading and second reading.

The property at issue is a stretch of Lewis Street, just north of Sixth Street and south of Rock Park. Staff proposed that the Town "abandon the right of way" to Randal A. Mikelson, who owns the house at 619 Lewis Street. Mr. Mikelson desires to use the land now occupied by the portion of the street given to him to accommodate an expansion of his house.

Staff justified its support of this gift of publicly-owned land to the Mikelson family by asserting that the "portion of Lewis Street does not serve any Town purpose and is not required for service or access to any private or public property."

That may be true, but it is beside the point. The point is that the taxpayers own the land that makes up the 0.07 acres of Lewis Street given away, or did until the Town Council made a present of it, anyway.

According to the staff memorandum on the deal, the Douglas County Assessor valued the 0.07 acres at approximately $420, while valuation based on the adjacent property put the value of the acreage at $13,050.59.

Notwithstanding the value of the land gifted to the Mikelsons, Acting Development Services Director Bill Detweiler, in a background memo delivered toTown Council members, insisted that, because the original owner of the Mikelson property deeded the land under Lewis Street to the town for free, the Town should not be compensated for it when a subsequent owner of the adjacent land would like to gain title to it.

The memo stated that "[t]here is value to the applicant in regaining this property. [H]owever, this value would exist if the ROW had never been dedicated."

That, too, is beside the point. The issue is not the benefit to be had by the Mikelsons. I think it's quite obvious they will gain a substantial benefit from a gift of land, no matter how small the quantity, that will help them expand the size of their home and therefore increase its market value.

The issue is the loss of value by the taxpayers and the failure of the Town Council to insist they be fairly compensated. Even if the town obtained the land under Lewis Street for free decades ago, that land had a value and it probably went up over the years.

I can fathom no reason why the residents of our community should not get the benefit of that market value.

Whether one believes the value of the land given away to an influential family is $420 or $13,050.59, the taxpayers have not been compensated for land they owned and which was entrusted to the care of their local government.

This is yet another example of Town Hall being too free and easy with the taxpayers' money and assets while pleading insufficient revenue to pay for needed services.

I find it hard to believe that the voters of Castle Rock are going to be convinced to grant the municipal government permission to raise its property tax mill levy or sales tax percentage when these incidents of unfortunate laxity in the management of their money such as this occur.


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Hank Lacey

Castle Rock , CO

Hank Lacey has posted 102 blog entries and 8 comments since joining on 5/31/2007. Hank Lacey 's average blog rating is 4.98.
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