After months of discussion, the Oxford Village Council last week finally pulled the trigger on the sale of one of its properties to a local developer.
Council voted 3-0 sell the village-owned vacant parcel at 23 Stanton St. for $15,000 to Dave Weckle, owner of Valley Building & Repair in Oxford. After the village pays closing costs totaling $889, it will net $14, 111.
Weckle plans to combine the 0.171-acre lot with the surrounding parcels he owns in that area to build a mixed use development consisting of retail and office space along with residential condominiums.
The property is currently zoned Central Business District (or C-1) Transition.
As for the village-owned 0.43-acre lot located at 27 Pleasant St., which Weckle’s offered to purchase for $20,000, council set aside the sale of it until a parking layout plan for it has been created and an arrangement with the owner of neighboring 33 Pleasant St. has been worked out.
Both must be presented to council.
Weckle has proposed converting the property into a combination public park and parking lot.
‘I think it’s a win-win situation for all involved,? he said.
The proposed park would be approximately 5,000 square feet in size and developed at the village’s discretion to possibly include a gazebo, benches, bicycle parking and a Lone Ranger/Silver statue. It’s proposed that the village would maintain the park and provide general liability insurance for it.
As for the parking portion, it was proposed to include an estimated 25 spaces for public use on a temporary basis through Dec. 31, 2013. It was also proposed that the village would provide bumper blocks at its expense and be responsible for the temporary gravel lot’s maintenance.
Future permanent parking on the property would include ‘no less than 10? spaces for public use and the rest would be for private use. The idea of the public use spaces is to accommodate users of the Polly Ann Trail, which runs adjacent to the parcel along its northern side.
Weckle would be responsible for the installation and maintenance of the permanent parking, including the public use portion, under the proposal.
Weckle is supposed to be working out some type of arrangement with the owner of 33 Pleasant St., which consists of a vacant building (a former grain elevator) on the other side of the trail, to provide parking for whatever future use ends up occupying that property.
As Weckle noted, 33 Pleasant St. is ‘very deficient? in terms of its ability to provide on-site parking.