High Springs opts to cut losses on Pigg property

A house, by any one of its various nicknames, is still the same house.

And the “Pigg Property,” whether called by that title, or the “Cedar Lane Property,” as it was more recently dubbed, is still the four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom single-family home at 15391 NW 214 Terrace in High Springs.

The only thing that has changed about the property is the owner.

During a June 10 meeting, the City Commission reluctantly accepted an offer on the infamous house, ending a four-year long struggle to sell it.

The buyer came before the Commission and said he was a High Springs native, but left when General Electric did to follow his job out of state. Now he is retired and wants to return, he explained.

Susan Walker, a Coldwell Banker M.M. Parrish Realtors agent from Gainesville, accompanied him at the meeting.

M.M. Parrish has the property listed, courtesy of Forrester Realty; the company originally selected by the city to sell the house. And Walker is the agent representing the buyer.

The city accepted an offer for $333,000, though the asking price was $410,000.

Mayor Bill Coughlin said he thought the commission should take the offer, though he didn’t want to. “But this is the reality of the market right now.”

Vice Mayor Eric May agreed, pointing out the city has already lost about $120,000 on interest-only mortgage payments alone, since the city purchased the property in January 2006 for $610,000.

City Manager Jim Drumm later put the estimated interest payments at about $135,000.

Why does a city need a house?

City Manager Jim Drumm said the idea to buy it originated when Gene Boles, the city planner at the time, identified the property in a comprehensive plan he brought before the City Commission.

It is situated between tracks of land owned by the Tillman family on one side and land owned by the White family on the other side.

There was talk of both families looking into residential development of their lands. The Tillmans were looking at building up to 1,000 new homes, Drumm said, and they would need a secondary route to access the neighborhood.

And thus was born the plan to purchase the property dubbed “Pigg” after the family name of its builders and owners from whom the city bought it.

It was thought that by purchasing the property, the city could retain a right-of-way that would allow for a road to be built in the future, and then it could sell the remaining property, less the right-of-way, maybe even for a profit.

A critical component of this reasoning was the rational that it would cost the city much more to obtain the right-of-way in the future, should it be forced to impose eminent domain.

“We were trying to think ahead,” said Jim Gabriel, who was a High Springs City Commissioner at the time. “We wanted to be proactive.”

There was a lot of thought put into it, he added. “It wasn’t a snap decision.” But the commission wanted to address the long-standing issue of traffic in the city. There was explosive growth happening at the time the purchase was made, and the intention was to plan accordingly.

No one knew what was about to happen, said Gabriel. “We didn’t have a crystal ball.”

Critics on all side

Mayor Coughlin called the ordeal “the biggest financial debacle in High Springs history.”

In order to cover just a portion of the balance left on the mortgage, plus additional expenses like closing costs on the sale, the city intends to use $175,000 from road funding.

Despite some rumors suggesting this may be an unlawful use of funds, city attorney Thomas DePeter confirmed that the money is actually coming from gas tax revenue allocated to fund right-of-way acquisitions.

Because the whole point of the original purchase was a right-of-way acquisition, and the city will retain about two acres of land on the southern portion of the property to allow for a road, should the need ever come to exist in the future, the use of that $175,000 is technically appropriate.

Drumm said, in fact, the city was especially careful to make sure that it would not violate the terms by which that money can be used.

It was determined that according to the assessed value of the land constituting the right-of-way, this was the maximum amount that could be taken from the “road funding,” and the remaining costs will most likely come from general funds, he said.

It’s important to realize, he added, that the pricing of these specific two acres can’t be arbitrarily compared to the value of some other random spot.

Would-be “geniuses” vs. “do-nothings”

The city’s decision to sell the house has already reignited a flame of controversy that’s been burning since the 2006 purchase.

In a June 11 blog post, Vice Mayor May suggested that it was irresponsible of the former commission to gamble with taxpayers’ money. Echoing Coughlin’s words, May called the issue, from purchase to sale, “arguably the worst financial disaster in our city’s history.”

Former commissioner Gabriel wasn’t surprised by the criticism from what he called “the do-nothing commission.”

He said he stands by the decision he and the rest of the former commission made. It was unconventional but it appeared to be the right choice at the time.

In his blog post, May referred to a newspaper story that quoted Gabriel saying that if the market hadn’t tanked, and the city flipped the property successfully, the commissioners would have “all been heralded as geniuses.”

May questioned the former commission’s determination that it was “worth the risk.”

It’s easy to call others out on their mistakes when you don’t take any action yourself, Gabriel added. If you don’t make any decisions you won’t ever have to stand up to any criticism.

After trying to hold out for a better offer, commissioners came to the unanimous conclusion that the city should cut its losses and sell the property.