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Council corrects sale price for two city homes to Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority after appraisal confusion
Summary
Council amended Ordinance 80-25 to adjust the sale price for two properties being sold to the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority and debated whether to require an independent appraisal and preserve property tax revenue.
Athens City Council on Sept. 2 amended an ordinance to authorize the sale of two city-owned homes — 25 Central Avenue and 458 Richland Avenue — to the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority (AMHA), changing the sale price after council and staff identified a calculation error.
Councilmember McCary moved an amendment to Ordinance 80-25 setting the sale price at $275,610; the amendment passed by voice vote. The proposed earlier figure of $282,520 included closing costs that AMHA’s board had used in their internal total, city staff said.
Councilmember Swank raised concerns that no independent appraisal had been done and that the sale price appeared to be below some 3rd‑party market estimates. “There was not an appraisal done. The price was just the sum of all of the tax appraised values,” Swank told the council. He proposed tabling the ordinance pending a certified appraisal in Athens but the motion to table received no second and was not taken up.
Service and Safety Director Stone said the county auditor’s appraised value for the three parcels involved was $275,610 as of the morning of Sept. 2. He also explained the difference between county appraisals and market-driven appraisals: county values are updated on a schedule and use a separate methodology from an individual market appraisal.
David Mott, legal counsel for the Athens Metropolitan Housing Authority, told the council there is “a special provision in the Ohio Revised Code that Metropolitan Housing Authority are exempt from paying property taxes.” Council members discussed that an AMHA tax exemption could remove the purchaser’s property‑tax revenue from local taxing jurisdictions; Swank noted that he opposed selling for less than what he believed to be market value, saying the council has a duty to “protect the pocketbooks of our citizens.”
The amendment adjusting the sale price to reflect the county auditor total passed; the ordinance was read for the first time with that amendment and will come back for second reading. Council did not adopt a requirement for an independent appraisal because a motion to table for that appraisal was not seconded during the meeting.
