Council approves purchase of 10 acres, shared parking agreement with church

Construction to expand Pacana Park could begin as early as November following City Council’s vote on Tuesday to approve the purchase of 10 acres of adjacent land for $700,000 from a local church.

The park is the site where staples of Maricopa special events take place from Stage Coach Days to the annual Fishing Derby, Founders Day and more.

“The desire is there with the public to have the facility for these events,” said Marty McDonald, director of Parks, Recreation and Libraries.

The money to pay for the land deal will come from an account with more than $900,000 collected from development impact fees, city officials said. The contract also includes a reciprocal agreement in which the church will lease back a portion of the land at a cost of $10 per year. The land will be used for a parking lot allowing access to both Community of Hope Church and the city park. The positioning of two entry and exit points were designed to meet recommendations from the fire and planning departments.

“It is a key point that the other site is required to provide for all of their parking,” McDonald said, clarifying that the reciprocal agreement is for overflow parking only.

City reports show that El Dorado Holdings agreed to sell to the church 15 acres of land said to be valued at $105,000 per acre at a cost of $67,300 per acre. The church in turn agreed to sell 10 of those acres to the city at a profit of $2,700 per acre.

Discussions between the three entities began in late October 2007 when city officials learned that the church was planning to buy the land on Porter Road south of Honeycutt Road.

“Prior to this inquiry, we had made multiple inquiries to El Dorado Holdings regarding the purchase of this land but they wanted to retain it for a worship site,” a city staff report dated Feb. 8 states.

The same report states that the fair market value of the land was later established at $80,000 per acre, quite a bit lower than the original assessment but still placing the cost to the city $10,000 under market value per acre.

Jim Kenny of El Dorado Holdings failed to return a phone call last week to comment on the transaction. On Tuesday, less than three hours before the City Council meeting, he declined to comment through a company receptionist. Broker Debra Bricker was said to be out of the country and unavailable until Monday. She did not answer a call to her cell phone or respond to a message seeking to validate the report’s claims.

Community of Hope is believed to still be in escrow with El Dorado Holdings waiting for their purchase to close so both parties can move forward.

An illustration of how the city plans to do so includes two lighted and full-sized soccer/football fields, synthetic grass on at least one of the fields, a children’s play area, a maintenance facility, 149 parking spots and structures to provide shade to those playing sports.

Pacana Park already offers a lighted softball field, a lighted muti-purpose field, a non-lighted soccer field, a playground, basketball and tennis courts, two armadas and a lighted trail.

Although talks have been in the works for months, city officials and church representatives remained mostly mum about details of the proposal until the release of the agenda and council packet for the Feb. 19 meeting.

Because information on the record was not immediately forthcoming from either source, many residents took to speculating as to why.

McDonald repeatedly stated that making details about the proposal public could threaten the deal. He declined in writing to speak to the media about the planned expansion until it was a done deal. He defended his actions Feb. 11 during a public round table designed to introduce city candidates to staff and current issues.

Community of Hope’s Children’s Director Lisa Akers broke the silence late last week by offering some insight into how the five acres the church intends to keep will be used, while still declining to speak to any negotiations with the city or El Dorado Holdings until after the Feb. 19 City Council meeting (see Community of Hope to build a worship and community center if land deal pans out).

“Whatever needs to come out will come out in the meeting,” Akers said.

In the meantime, she said Maricopa citizens had nothing to fear.

“It will affect everybody in a positive way,” Akers said of a private center slated for Sunday worship and weekday community activities. “This whole negative spin is for naught. Everybody has been spinning their wheels for no reason. There is nothing bad coming out of this.”

Although officials weren’t talking, the matter was a popular topic of local conversation. Akers said the cell phone number of her husband, Lead Pastor Rusty Akers, had gotten into the hands of some disgruntled folks who called to harass him to release information about the pending sale. Others voiced their concerns in person or on online community forums.

“I know it’s hard to believe there are people out there who don’t have agendas, but that is not how we operate,” Akers said.

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Photos by RuthAnn Hogue