Government by the Democrats, of the Democrats and for the Democrats
By Kevin Ryan

Up in here in Chittenden County, the Burlington Electric Department is considering, like many City residents, selling their land. With most people, the problem is their property taxes are so high, they are afraid they may lose their homes. BED’s reasoning is a little different. They have no use for a parcel of land they own off Intervale Road, 199 acres of it to be exact.

So, BED General Manager Barbara Grimes and Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss are endorsing a plan to sell the 199 acres of undeveloped land to the Intervale Center, a private agriculture company who farms there, for a the bargain price of only $200,000. No, that isn’t a misprint. 199 acres of prime undeveloped land for $200,000, less than the price of the average single family home in Burlington. Sort of makes you want to make a counter-offer, doesn’t it?

How did they arrive at this fire sale pricing? I’m not sure myself, but I do know that Cole, Layer, Trumbull Company, who conducted the 2005 re-assessment of every parcel in Burlington, judged the land to be valued at roughly $1.6 Million this past year. Burlington City listed the tax liability on the land to be over $294,000 on the Grand List for 2006. Well, seems City Assessor John Vickery didn’t think that was a fair price, so he dropped the assessment to about $400,000. The powers-that-be wasn’t too sure about that price, either, so they hired an independent assessor named Michael O’Brien who lowered it further, to $200,000. If there is anyone else in Burlington who got their tax assessment lowered by 75% and then reduced it again by 50%, please contact me. I haven’t met anyone like that myself, but I’d be happy to congratulate them on their extraordinarily good fortune. Actually, if this has happened to anyone in the State of Vermont, contact me, I need the name of your lawyer.

Anyway, the price is 200 big ones, and Burlington Electric needs to sell it. You see, they have to sell land they have no use for, and they have a fiduciary responsibility to get good value for the sale. For those of you who moved here from the flatlands, that means they need to get the best price for the land. Now, you may ask, who told them they were obligated to sell? They haven’t been told to by the Public Service Board. Nobody told them, actually. Burlington Electric came up with that idea themselves. That happened right after the Intervale Center called and offered to buy.

The terms of the deal are still being worked on as we speak, but according to the Intervale, the City will still have the right to use the wells on the land for the McNeil Power Generation Station, which sits next door; the City will still be able to store wood there, they’ll still have the right to use the land to run utilities and also to store clean fill. I’m a little confused that the City insists they have no use for the land, but are asking for the right to use the land for several reasons, but I’m a just a regular citizen, so what do I know? Oh, I should add that the Intervale Center has agreed to never protest or oppose any use of the McNeil Plant, which is pretty nice of them.

What’s the land being used for now? The Intervale Center uses most of it for farming, which provides locally grown food and that’s a good thing. They lease the land from the city for $3000 dollars per year, which is another pretty terrific deal. If there’s a landlord out there with an apartment for that price, I’m in the market for that too. I’ll even pay that much for one acre if you’ve got it.

The Intervale Center was formed back in the 1980’s by a fella named Will Raap, who owns Gardener’s Supply Company, a farming equipment store that is located right next to the land the Intervale Center wants to buy. Will is quite a community activist. Not only is he the owner of the company who probably provides a good bit of stuff to Intervale Center, and the founder of the IC, but he also serves as the Treasurer of the Democratic Scudder Parker for Governor Campaign, so he knows a good value when he sees it.

Will Raap isn’t the only Democrat looking out for the Intervale Center, no sir. Democrat Gaye Symington, the Vermont Speaker of the House, works for the Intervale Center as their Development Director, and I’d guess helped this deal along considerably. Melinda Moulton, a longtime Democratic Party donor and activist is the Chair of the Intervale Board. Now during the day, she’s a land developer, but it looks like she also is making sure the Intervale Center won’t get stuck with anything but the best price when they buy these 199 acres from Burlington Electric. Even Joe McNeil, the Burlington City Attorney, who oversaw the balloting at last year’s Burlington Democratic Party Mayoral Caucus, is giving this $200,000 land sale the blessing of his office. By gum, the Intervale Center is sure lucky to have such good friends.

Now if I were the City of Burlington, I might think twice before selling this land at such a low price, or at all, actually. I might want at least the $400,000 price the City Assessor came up with or I might ask around to see if there’s a better offer out there. The Intervale insists that the land isn’t worth any more than they want to pay though, because much of it is on a flood plain and can’t be developed. I got curious, and looked to find out whether developing such land is possible. Turns out, Disney World is built on a mangrove swamp, so it can be done, but Kit Perkins, the Executive Director of the Center says it’s not possible now because of laws about such things. Vermont does allow development on flood plain land, but you’d have to get permission from the City first. I’d bet with some friendly faces at City Hall, or a plan for affordable housing, you could get it done if you wanted to. The Intervale Center says they just want to farm.

The Intervale Center could offer Burlington Electric a better price to sweeten the deal, but they say they just can’t afford it. The only reason they can buy the land now is because the State of Vermont Housing and Conservation Board is giving them the money. You’d think that some of their friends might take up a collection, cause they are fairly influential, but they are pretty busy with other things.

Some folks on the Burlington City Council thought that selling one of the largest parcels of undeveloped land in Burlington was so important to consider, they wanted to put the question to the voters on Town Meeting Day in March. Councilors Kurt Wright and Paul Decelles sponsored a resolution to do exactly that, but on September 18th, the Democrat majority Council voted 8-6 to keep the decision to themselves.

See, the voters in Burlington might not be educated enough to make a good decision on whether the land sale is a good idea, mused Councilor Barbara Perry. Assistant City Attorney Ken Schatz observed that while City funds to advocate selling the land would be illegal if such a question does end up on the ballot, the City can spend all they like to "educate" the public on the issue. Of course, if the City does decide to spend money to inform the voters on why a private company should be the owner of 199 greenspace acres now controlled by the people of Burlington, they can always take it out of the $200,000.

-- Kevin Ryan lives in Burlington. He can be contacted at oryanfactor@yahoo.com