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HomeMy WebLinkAbout(D1) #32 - Lake Arthur - Land Purchase Timeline 8-16-2022#32 – Lake Arthur Detention – Land Purchase Timeline 8/20/2019 – Alberto presented the fact that land acquisition will be required as the entire project area is not owned by the City. property ID #268125 owned by Anthony Leger and property ID # 74516 owned by Shomalzadeh M Hassan were identified as the project landowners. 8/22/2019 – Ardurra has created templates of land acquisition which clearly state that the City of Port Arthur is interested in acquiring the land in question from Anthony Leger and Shomalzadeh M Hassan. It states the following in the body of the letter : “The purpose of this notice is to inform you of your rights under a federal law known as the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act (URA). Enclosed is a HUD brochure entitled "When A Public Agency Acquires Your Property". This brochure provides useful information about the public acquisition of real property (real estate) under the URA. At this stage, your property is under consideration for acquisition. This notice is not a contractual offer or commitment to purchase your property. If your property is selected for acquisition, under the URA, you will have the right to receive just compensation for your property. In order to determine the amount of just compensation to be offered to you, an appraisal of your property has been performed on September 16, 2019. For your information, City of Port Arthur possesses eminent domain authority to acquire the property needed for this project. However, our goal is to attempt to negotiate amicable agreements for all property acquisitions prior to its use. If negotiations fail, acquisition under eminent domain may be considered” The letter was presented to Alberto Elefano for review and forwarded to TDEM for feedback. 8/20-/19 - 9/2/2019 – Multiple discussions with TDEM took place to inform them regarding the need for land acquisition. A formal request letter for budget amendment to include the cost of land acquisition was sent to TDEM. Also, some draft notices to the landowners for involuntary acquisition to allow “eminent domain” were sent to TDEM for review, approval, and feedback. 9/3/2019 - Terrell Kincaid, the Grant coordinator with TDEM has provided clear feedback for the notices that Ardurra sent for review and Cautioned that proceeding with the land purchase before FEMA approval will create eligibility issues. His formal response is shown below : “As you know, the request to add the acquisition to the SOW and to the budget is still pending and the City risks eligibility if it performs work related to the requested change before approval. I think it’s safe for the City to prepare for the acquisition by working on a letter draft, but if this letter were to be sent before the SOW is approved, they risk being non-compliant. If the City wants to choose the SOW Mod route to eminent domain approval, please just have them draft a short addition to their previous letter, or they may submit a whole new letter if they prefer. In addition, I’d say that the statement above about eminent domain being ineligible for acquisition of residential structures is correct. However, eminent domain may be used, if necessary, in the case of some drainage projects. I’d also add that I agree with the suggestion to include the question in the SOW modification. That way we have a clear response specific to this project.” 9/10/2019 – A formal notice on City’s letter head to invite Anthony Leger for property ID #268125 3.971 acres and Shomalzadeh M Hassan property ID # 74516, 14.409 acres for the scheduled appraisal on 9/16/2019 has been sent on 9/10/2019. 9/10/2019 - A formal notice on City’s letter head was sent to Shomalzadeh Hassan and Anthony Leger were sent informing them that an archeological survey will be performed on their land. 9/16/2019 – The appraisal was performed at property ID #268125 and property ID # 74516 at 10.00 Am on 16th September. Anthony Leger and Shomalzadeh M Hassan accompanied the appraiser and Ardurra team during the visit. They presented all facts and development opportunities that could be accounted for in the land value. 10/7/2019 – Appraisal Reports have been received and the property ID #74516 is valued at $433,000 and property ID #268125 has been valued at $ 99,000. 10/30/2019 – A formal notice on City’s letter head was sent to Shomalzadeh Hassan and Anthony Leger were sent informing them that an environmental assessment will be performed on their land. 11/15/2019 – Alberto mentioned that Mr. Hassan is not happy with the land appraised value and believes it should cost more. We informed that a counter appraisal may be created by the landowners and we can send to TDEM and FEMA for consideration. 12/30/2019 – Alberto Elefano informed Ardurra that the City’s council has approved the purchase of the land I.e., property ID # 74516 for $850,000 on 12/3/2019 and sent all the closing documents from Huy Tran on 12/20/2019. Immediately this being non-compliant with FEMA and CDBG-DR guidelines was discussed with Alberto. 1/2/2020 –TDEM was informed regarding the unauthorized land purchase and TDEM confirmed that “the acquisition cost may not be included as an eligible pre-award cost, nor may it be considered as an eligible Phase I cost. This is true for all project types, and the reasoning is based on this: If Phase II is not approved (for any number of reasons), then FEMA has funded the acquisition for no justifiable reason, and the City then owns a piece of land that may or may not be used for the intended purpose.” 1/2/2020 – The Traylor and Associates team was informed that property ID # 74516 was purchased. 1/15/2020 – A kick off meeting was held with TDEM and Even though the land purchase timing is non-compliant, Ardurra requested that we run the land purchase through FEMA review chains again for consideration. 1/7/2020 – All closing documents gave been sent to Melinda Smith of Traylor and Associates for review and submission to GLO for consideration of funding. 1/13/2020 – Traylor and Associates confirmed that : “It is doubtful that CDBG-DR funds can be utilized for matching funds on this parcel if no ERR was completed before checks were signed.  There are some things that HUD is flexible on and this is not one of those items.  Failure to secure environmental clearance prior to acquisition is deemed a “choice limiting action” and automatically renders any associated costs ineligible” 3/24/2020 – A formal request to consider the land appraisal and acquisition costs in the project Phase I budget is made to TDEM on 3/24/2020 in the format they requested. 10/14/2020 – FEMA confirmed that budget modification was approved to include $7,000 for appraisal fees during Phase I and $2,000,000 for the land acquisition during Phase II, pending phase II approval.