City staff told the Casper City Council at its meeting that two city-owned parcels — a larger Trivette Lane site and a smaller lot at the corner of 13th Street and Locust Avenue — have received single bids below the properties' most recent appraisals and staff recommended the council consider moving forward with the sales.

"You have probably seen in the packet that we have 2 pieces of property we wanna talk to you about tonight," said Carter, a city staff member who presented the items. The Trivette Lane parcel's current appraisal is roughly half of a 2022 appraisal of about $1,030,000, council members said; the lone bid for that property came in at a level roughly consistent with the lower, more recent appraisal. The 13th and Locust lot was described as having a bid roughly $15,000 below its appraisal; the Trivette bid was described as about $30,000 below its appraisal.

Council debate split on timing and trade-offs. Councilor Kyle Pollock said he was concerned the council's prior rezoning of the Trivette parcel to an "urban agriculture" designation had reduced its appraisal and left the city effectively receiving the same bid it had before the rezoning. "I certainly have great hesitation about accepting this bid because it's what spurred us to rezone it in the first place," Pollock said, noting he expected the Robinson Road Corridor Study and several months of operation by a nearby charter school to inform whether denser development belonged there.

Other council members said rezoning was a response to neighbors' concerns about commercial or higher-density uses and that the rezoning did not preclude a developer from requesting a rezone later. Councilor Michael (first name only in the record) and Councilor Amber Becker said they believed moving forward with the bid process reflected prior direction and could deliver housing of the price point the city needs. Becker said the rezoning was intended to reflect community input and that any development plan would still be evaluated on its merits.

Greg, of the planning department, told the council that if a developer builds the 60 units they have proposed for Trivette, the project would trigger a site-specific traffic study and the developer would be required to mitigate negative traffic impacts. "If the developer does what he says he's gonna do, which is 60 units of housing, it would generate a need for a traffic site that would be specific to this development ... and that cost would be on that developer," Greg said.

City staff told the council that state statutes require public solicitation for disposal of city-owned property, which limits how the city can negotiate with bidders after bids are received; staff said the council may reject a bid and re-advertise, but taking another price would require an appraisal to support a different asking price. Staff recommended that if council wishes to award the sale, a formal motion and vote should occur at the next meeting.

Council discussion also addressed local traffic capacity and rights-of-way. Several councilors urged waiting for the Robinson Road Corridor Study and for the nearby charter school to open and generate traffic data before committing to a sale; others argued the city needs more housing now and that standard project-level mitigation would address impacts. For the smaller 13th-and-Locust parcel, staff noted the lot is about 5,000 square feet (minimum lot size in city code: 4,000 square feet) and buildable though it presents setback and shape challenges.

No formal motion or vote to accept or reject either bid was made at the meeting. Staff recommended the council place a resolution or minute action on the agenda at the next meeting to either award or reject the bid(s). The council did not reach a final decision tonight, leaving the properties unsold pending next-step direction.

Ending: The council's next scheduled meeting will include a recommended motion to award or reject the bids; staff said that, whichever way the council moves, any change in price would need an appraisal and that development-specific mitigation requirements (for traffic or other impacts) would apply to a future buyer's project.