Meanwhile, Sesquicentennial Park Citizens Committee formed with hopes to buy the property
Graham’s city council could decide Tuesday night whether to impose any deed restrictions on the planned sale of the former Sesquicentennial Park property on the northwest corner of Court Square.
City management is asking for guidance on what, if any, restriction or restrictions, the council may want to place on the city property before it is auctioned off.
A timeframe for the potential sale of the property (depending on whether the council takes final action in August or September) is also included in next week’s agenda packet, and is reproduced nearby.
The council voted last month, 3-2, to declare the property surplus and sell it via an online auction.
The former park was built in 1999, to honor the sesquicentennial (150th) celebration of Alamance County’s founding in 1849.
The park was the culmination of yearlong festivities and fundraising efforts to leave a “lasting gift for the community,” as Sam Powell, co-chairman of the Sesquicentennial committee recalled during a meeting last week with residents who have organized a group hoping to persuade the council majority not to move forward with declaring the former Sesquicentennial Park as surplus and putting it up for sale.
During the week following Memorial Day, the park property was razed, with city workers disassembling the park and taking the memorial bricks, steel pergola, ornamental clock, and marble benches to storage before they seeded the bare lot and covered it with straw.
Earlier this year, the council had successive 3-2 votes in January, February, and March to move the park to a nearby parking lot on West Elm Street. But when the low bid for that new location came in at $1.2 million, the council voted, unanimously, in April not to move forward with a new location.
At its July meeting, city manager Megan Garner also asked the council to formalize its withdrawal of plans to build a new park along West Elm Street earlier this year; the council voted unanimously for Garner’s suggestion to withdraw those plans.
Over the past two years, as members have considered whether to sell off the corner lot, some council members have said they want something that will fit in with the “historic” look of the downtown area.
Some members have pointed to a painting in the council chambers of the three-story Soda Shop building that occupied that spot for almost a century before it was destroyed by fire in 1977.
At the end of last month’s meeting, mayor Chelsea Dickey asked the city’s attorney who was present, Bryan Coleman, whether and what potential restrictions could be placed on the sale of the property.
Coleman responded, “I guess the, the council could certainly put restrictions on the property, you know, reasonable restrictions.
“I think the more restrictions you put, the less valuable the property’s going to be though and you’re going to get an appraisal.
“I think [you] need to know what the restrictions are going to be so they can appraise it properly,” Coleman added.
Dickey asked specifically whether the council could place height restrictions on whatever might subsequently be built on the location.
Coleman said, “It’s going to be restricted somewhat because it’s in the historic district and it’s in the business district. So they’re going to be certain things that can go there anyway. You can put further restrictions on it though. I mean that that would be something you could look into.”
Meanwhile, a group of supporters of the park is now asking citizens to contribute to a fund that might bid on the park lot during the online auction.
The group, called the Sesquicentennial Park Citizens Committee, says it is in the process of creating a 501(c)(3) to design and care for a “new” memorial park and will be submitting a bid to purchase the lot.
The group also announced that county commissioner Sam Powell, who was the co-chairman of the 1999 Sesquicentennial Committee “has stepped forward and agreed to match, dollar for dollar, the amount we are able to raise” for purchasing the land.
