Photo: The meadow
I enjoy hiking, so I drove out six miles to the 94-acre Groom Creek property currently leased by the City of Prescott to Friendly Pines. This post follows the Prescott eNews story that was posted Sunday, April 26.
Photo: Lake and meadow
I wanted to provide readers with a more in-depth look at what the Groom Creek property actually entails. This land is very valuable, but the City is leasing it to the private camp for only $1,965 per month—and no property taxes are paid. To put that figure in perspective, $1,965 per month would only cover about three spots at an RV park like Shady Acres (where you have to bring your own rig).
The Groom Creek property currently has at least three or four double-wide homes, likely used for staff housing. Since the camp doesn’t own the land, they haven’t invested in permanent structures, opting for these manufactured homes instead.
This stands in stark contrast to the surrounding neighborhood, where homes are valued well over $1 million — as you can readily tell by the accompanying photos.
Photo: The lake from Marapai Road
The City property has a four-acre lake and there is both existing power and a well that irrigates a large turf field.
Photo: The North area
The City is able to give notice of lease cancellation in October of 2028. I suggest the City immediately notify the tenant of the City’s intent to conduct an independent appraisal and to terminate the lease unless other arrangements are made. Moving forward, any lease or sale should be based on those current market results rather than the current undervalued rates.
I was notified Monday by the Mayor that the Friendly Pines agenda item for Tuesday was pulled from the agenda, and that the Council will instead have an executive session regarding this issue (which hasn’t been posted yet).
This issue raises another question: How many other City property leases have fallen through the cracks? In the interest of transparency, the City should release a list of all its leased properties and provide links to the actual lease agreements so the public can review the rates and specific terms.
1 thought on “UPDATE: Another City Giveaway? – Howard Mechanic”
Good job Howard. If Prescott was a private company I doubt these properties would have been as unproductive. Why has senior staff not brought this to the town managers attention? Then, a legal opinion made and acted upon by mayor and council. That path would be the method to bring about a market based decision perhaps placing these properties in the hands of real estate for sale or identified as open space and kept in the city of Prescott’s hands.
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