BP Land Sale Between Muskego and County Hits a Snag

Bristling at Waukesha County's $2,500 counter offer on the BP land at the corner of Janesville Road and Lannon Drive, and a delay in the process costing the city an opportunity to garner grant funds, the Common Council voted to hold at their original offer $1 for the land.

"This is a great piece of real estate and I don't want it to become the next tree farm, but it does bug me that we could have moved on this sooner," Alderman Rob Glazier said. "But the county dinked around and we're not able to capture the grant funds. I also don't want to sound petty but I don't think we should have to pay for their appraisal, which was their idea to do."

The City of Muskego originally offered to purchase the land in November, with the idea that the city could control its own destiny in selling the land and be more active in getting it cleaned up and resold. In addition, as owners of the property Muskego would qualify for a DNR grant, rendering the city's risk at minimal.

However, Jeff Muenkel, Community Development Director, explained to the council Tuesday night that the price coming back from the county is $2,500 to cover their costs for an appraisal, which was returned as a $0 value. The delay has also meant that about $700,000 in available grant funds are not there anymore.

"The thought behind an acquisition from the city was that the city was going to use WDNR Ready for Reuse monies to clean up the parcel before offering it for a public sale RFP (request for proposal) process," Muenkel explained. The program would pay for 78 percent of the costs to cleanup, with the balance being covered by existing TIF 8 District money. 

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"The WDNR has informed staff that they are attempting to get supplemental funds for the program that may be available later this year or we can get on the short list in case some of the accounted projects fall through," he explained, adding, "either way there now is no guarantee on the getting the grant monies." 

Muenkel said the DNR is hoping for funding as early as this summer, but that the cleanup would likely not cost more than $100,000 and probably a lot less. A previous report indicated slight contamination in areas that will fall into the county's right of way and will be removed through construction, therby reducing the costs, he said.

Should the city and county reach an agreement, any profits made on a future sale to a private developer within the next 10 years would have to be returned to the county.