The West Linn-Wilsonville School Board may provide input Wednesday on how much West Linn residents will be asked to pay for the purchase of the Oppenlander fields in a May bond vote.
After a work session of the West Linn City Council on Monday, Feb. 7, in which the council discussed its next steps regarding the city's potential purchase from the district, the school board announced it would hold a work session of its own at 4 p.m. Feb. 9.
The district and city began to discuss the city acquiring the property last spring after outcry from the community when the district put the property for sale on the open market.
After a school board meeting last Friday, Feb. 4, the city of West Linn released a statement announcing that a recent appraisal valued the 10-acre property at only $120,000. Just last April, an appraiser hired by the district valued the property at $6.5 million.
The discrepancy came because the firm hired by the district and city to set the official appraisal, Romanagi Evaluation Services, considered that the city could only use the land as a park or open space whereas the prior appraisal did not. A purchase and sales agreement between the city and district, which was finalized Jan. 10, stipulated that the property could only be used as a park or open space if acquired by the city.
Now the council is weighing whether to ask voters to approve the purchase of the property at $120,000, $6.5 million or some figure in between.
The council must make the decision at its next meeting Feb. 14 in order to meet Clackamas County's ballot filing deadline for the May election.
