The financial benefit from selling the county's last undeveloped
lakefront site would be a drop in the bucket, according to a neighborhood
activist and real estate developer who opposes the sale. Frank Parlato
estimates the sale would not net enough money to run the county half a day.
He is calling for a countywide referendum at the next general election to
let residents decide whether they want to hang on to the land, around
Sturgeon Point in the Town of Evans, or sell it.
"Should Sturgeon Point, the county's last undeveloped lakefront land, be
sold to private developers or should it be preserved for all coming
generations as public green space and lakefront access?" Parlato asks.
The 53-acre property, appraised at $ 663,000, might fetch $ 1 million at
county auction, but that is a minute amount in the county's $ 1
billion-plus annual budget, Parlato said. The area is adjacent to Sturgeon
Point marina, which is owned by the Town of Evans.
"That money (from the sale) would pay for operating costs of the entire
county for about eight hours," he said. "This last 53 acres on the lake
should be preserved because its irreplaceable. Morally, it belongs to the
people."
The effort to sell the land surfaced when Deputy Budget Director Robert
Kowalewski announced he was being pushed by the "public" to get rid of the
land, which he described as a burden to the county.
Asked who was pushing him to sell the land, Kowalewski identified
"developers and real estate people." Asked to identify individuals, he
named former county employee Loretta Yellen and real estate developer Peter
Hunt.
Kowalewski predicts that the 53-acre site would be developed with one-acre
lots that have the potential of generating about $ 100,000 a year in county
taxes if the homes constructed are assessed at $ 200,000.
Kowalewski maintains that the county does not need to hold on to the jagged
parcel, which includes lake frontage and land surrounding Sturgeon Point
Marina, as green space for future generations because the area has other
public beaches.