Stafford supervisors have upped their offer on the Crow’s Nest peninsula by $2.7 million.
Board members made that decision late Tuesday night, after learning that an updated appraisal showed the tract was worth $33.2 million.
Their resolution explains the updated appraisal, which came back Aug. 21, was ordered to ensure the offer was fair market value. It authorizes the county attorney to file condemnation paperwork if it appears a deal cannot be reached.
Some see the new offer as an inconsequential move in the campaign to buy 2,887 of the tract’s total 3,800 acres for a public park.
“What we see happening last night is simply a formality in the process of getting the offer in line with the appraisal,” Attorney Clark Leming, who represents K&M Properties—the owner of Crow’s Nest, said yesterday.
He has said previously his client wants to cash in on its long-term investment by building houses on the peninsula or getting fair compensation for not doing so. His client has hired its own appraiser, and believes it can prove a $60 million land value.
But the the board’s decision to increase its offer on Crow’s Nest has raised questions about how ready the county is to pursue condemnation.
In May, officials asked K&M to sell its land for $30.5 million, $3.5 million more than the original appraisal. A month later supervisors voted to start the condemnation process because the McLean developer had only responded with questions, rather than an answer.
The county has not yet petitioned the court to condemn the land. And financial options for buying the peninsula are still vague.
But Supervisor Paul Milde, whose Aquia District includes the peninsula, said the board’s willingness to unanimously support two bona fide offers and condemnation in the last few months demonstrates the its commitment to saving Crow’s Nest.
The process may be slow, he said, but it will be worth it.
“We are crossing our t’s and dotting our i’s we are making sure our offer is
a fair offer,” he said. “The cumulative effect of the painstaking way this
is all happening is going to help us at end of day if this does end up in
court.”
See the full story in tomorrow's Free Lance-Star.
--Meghann Cotter, The Free Lance-Star