Delano City Council holds closed session to consider offer on landlocked 1.8‑acre industrial parcel

The Delano City Council/Economic Development Authority met May 5 and moved into a closed session to consider an offer and negotiations for Parcel 107058001020, a 1.8‑acre lot in the Delano Industrial Park.

City Administrator Phil Kern briefed the council in open session before the closed meeting, describing the parcel as landlocked and noting physical constraints — including topography, a natural‑gas line and roadway corridor limits — that complicate development. Kern said the parcel lies south of Johnson Drive, east of 7th Street and north of the Maplewood Estates neighborhood and that earlier platting imagined a 9th Street South extension that was never built. He told the council extending roadway infrastructure to serve the parcel would cost the city more than $400,000. Kern also said Landscape Structures recently purchased property west of the parcel and had submitted an offer; he clarified the council was not being asked to approve development plans during the open session.

After the briefing, Councilmember Jason Franzen moved and Councilmember Peter Froehle seconded a motion to enter closed session to discuss terms and negotiations related to the offer; the motion carried. The minutes record that the council later exited closed session on the same night; no open‑session vote to approve a sale or specific terms is recorded in the minutes.

The briefing emphasized the tradeoffs the city faces: selling the parcel to a nearby industrial buyer could support local jobs and property reuse, but the land’s physical and access constraints — plus neighborhood opposition cited in prior discussions — limit development potential and may require municipal investment to make the site buildable. The council did not record a public decision on the sale during the May 5 meeting. The matter is likely to return to council or EDA consideration after closed‑session negotiations.