LAKE COUNTY ? Property held in trust to be developed as a four-year college in Middletown is set to return to its original owners after a unanimous vote of the Lake County Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
Orville Magoon Estate donated approximately 1,040 acres of land to the Lake County Business Outreach and Response Team (BORT), which in turn gave it to the county in 1998 to hold in trust until the college could be built.
“It”s quite a steep, beautiful piece of property. Unfortunately, I do not believe that in this current environment the opportunity to have a college is on any horizon that we could see,” District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock said.
Comstock said not enough progress had been made on the college project in 11 years, and returning the land to Langtry Farms, the successor for the estate, would bring tax revenue to the county.
The board directed Lake County Counsel Anita Grant to pursue transferring the land back to Langtry and bring the transaction back for board approval. She told the board Langtry had offered to pay property taxes the county had not collected during the time the land was held in trust.
Lake County Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Cox estimated the amount of the back taxes was $30,000.
In March 2008, the board scheduled time to discuss what to do with the land after learning that Langtry would not donate a flat, 185-acre piece of land in the middle of the donated land. Cox said after visiting the site, the college could likely not be build without the flat land.
Cox said he had held off the discussion to decide what to do with the land as long as he could. He said he waited until Tuesday so that Guenoc Valley College CEO Francesca Peretti could attend. Peretti sent a letter saying she wasn”t able to attend, but believed more information was needed before a decision could be made.
“Some county officials knew abut the missing parcel and its key role in the development of the college, but never told me,” Peretti writes.
Peretti continues, “What has the county really done to procure the missing parcel and bring Guenoc Valley College to the originally planned state? It is not a fact, merely an opinion, that nothing can be done.”
“It was a great dream,” District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith said. “But at this point, seeing things haven”t moved along, that 185 acres aren”t a part of the property ? like Kelly (Cox) said we were kind of thrown into it as a kind of place holder for this property ? I agree with Jim (Comstock) in that it would be a good idea to wind back.”
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com, or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
