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Council approves sale or easements of multiple city parcels to ODOT for final phase of ADA ramp upgrades
Summary
After a staff presentation, the council approved a series of individual resolutions authorizing fee acquisitions and permanent/temporary easements on 10 city-owned parcels to allow ODOT’s Phase 3 ADA ramp project to proceed; staff said offers were appraised and include compensation for improvements and damages.
Wade Elliott, assistant director, presented the city’s cooperative history with the Oregon Department of Transportation on ADA ramp upgrades and described the final (third) phase of work that will require small right-of-way acquisitions or easements on 10 city-owned parcels in Grants Pass. He said ODOT is replacing roughly 26,000 ADA ramps statewide under a settlement and that previous phases in the city required similar agreements.
Elliott described the federally prescribed right-of-way acquisition process (Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisitions Policy of 1970), including appraisals with secondary review, offers and compensation for improvements damaged during construction. He reviewed each impacted parcel with square-foot amounts and estimated compensation, including a fee conveyance of 155 square feet on the City Hall property and smaller permanent or temporary easements at the Parkway Fire Station, Kesterson Park, the Frog lot and other downtown parcels.
Councilors asked whether the offers were fair and whether the city would be exposed if additional costs emerged; staff said the appraisal process is vetted and described negotiation and condemnation as backstops. For convenience, staff combined the public hearing and questioning for resolutions labeled a through j but read and voted on each resolution individually per the code requirement to read conveyance resolutions aloud. Councilors moved and approved each resolution in turn; staff noted total offers to the city for nine of the ten properties were $27,150, with $750 for the water-treatment-plant parcel, and that nine of the ten properties were purchased using general-fund dollars.
The resolutions authorize fee acquisitions, permanent easements or temporary easements as required for construction, and include compensation for landscape and infrastructure damages. Staff said the city may also elect to donate properties to ODOT in lieu of sale.
