Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Deed Restriction Amendment Bruckner Park topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Parks committee recommends keeping deed restriction on Bruckner Park sale
Summary
The Recreation and Parks Committee recommended against amending the deed restriction tied to the sale of Bruckner Park to the Troy-Miami County Public Library, citing that removing the reverter clause would make enforcement dependent on court action, and noting the park board's recommendation was conditioned on legal review.
The Recreation and Parks Committee on Monday recommended that the City of Troy not amend the deed restrictions tied to the sale of Bruckner Park to the Troy-Miami County Public Library, committee members said.
Committee members said the library asked the city to modify language in the deed that had originally included a reverter clause, which would automatically return the land to the city or the park board if the property ceased to be used for its intended library and educational purposes. The committee decided not to support that change and will not present legislation to amend the existing ordinance.
The change proposed by the library would remove the automatic reverter clause. A staff member explained the practical effect: without the reverter, "it would take us going to court and getting a judge to sign off on an injunction" to stop uses the city viewed as inconsistent with the sale terms. The staff member said the Park Board of Parks Commissioners reviewed the request and offered a recommendation for the change conditioned on approval by the law director.
Todd Siebert, Council member at large, said he opposed substituting the new language for the original reverter language, calling the proposed change "turning an apple into an orange." Siebert said the council had previously approved language providing automatic reversion if the property ceased to be used for the stated nonprofit, library, educational and related purposes.
The committee discussed language in Ordinance 31-24, which the staff member read as specifying that the property "shall be used for the use and purpose of promoting nonprofit, library, educational, extracurricular, and interscholastic activities, and other uses incidental and related thereto, but for no other purposes whatsoever except as specifically provided herein, and in the case said premises shall cease to be used or occupied for such purposes, then said property will revert to and be vested in the city of Troy." The staff member also said the library had agreed that, if it relocates, it would provide the city a right of first refusal to purchase the land at fair market value.
Committee members noted that the park board's reversion would occur to the park board as the prior owner, not directly back to the city, if the original reverter language were triggered. The staff member also said any amended agreement must be executed by all parties by the end of the year.
As a result of the discussion, the committee recorded a negative recommendation on the library's requested change; no amendment to the existing ordinance will be advanced to council at this time.
Less central to the committee's decision, members noted that the law director provided a written memo interpreting the legal effect of the proposed language change but did not recommend whether the council should adopt the amendment.
