Authority committee approves $20,000 recommendation for excess parcel and advances Horace rail-corridor sales

FARGO — The Land Management Diversion Authority Committee on May 21 recommended selling a 10-acre excess parcel known as OAN 858 for $20,000 and moved to advance disposition of a rail corridor in Horace after receiving widespread interest from adjacent landowners.

The committee voted unanimously on a recommendation that the full authority approve the $20,000 sale price for OAN 858. Committee members later voted, also unanimously, to proceed under the authority’s excess-land procedures for multiple parcels in the Horace rail corridor, beginning surveying, environmental remediation and the process of issuing purchase agreements for interested adjacent landowners.

The actions matter because they begin transferring publicly held, formerly rural properties into private ownership and set in motion surveying and cleanup steps that committee staff said will take several months. The rail corridor decision directly affects multiple Horace property owners who told the committee they want to buy portions of the corridor; the City of Horace has not yet committed to buying one parcel…