By MARK TODD - Staff Writer - mtodd@starbeacon.com
CONNEAUT — Closer study of maps shows a developer would receive an extra 43 acres of city-owned land to assist a wind-turbine-farm project on Conneaut’s east side.
A contract with SGR Site Associates will be revised to reflect the added acreage, as well as other amendments sought by City Council, Law Director Lori Lamer said Monday. The contract was moved to a third and final reading at Monday night’s meeting. However, any amendment would bump the legislation back to a second reading automatically.
The new agreement would sell SGR some 202 acres of land within the East Conneaut Industrial Park for about $2,400 an acre. As written, the contract stipulates 159 acres would be sold.
A review of maps pertaining to the proposed deal uncovered the discrepancy, officials said.
SGR would use the city land, along with two adjoining parcels, to create a 2,500-acre tract. If feasibility studies bear fruit, SGR would market the land to utilities for a wind farm.
Last week, council aired a handful of concerns with the contract and asked city administrators to approach SGR for a possible rewrite. SGR has agreed to all the concessions, Lamer said, which include:
n Removal of all nondisclosure clauses, which some council members felt put terms of the deal under a cloak of secrecy;
n Exclusion of dozens of acres within the park believed to be prime commercial property. The wind-farm land is primarily wetlands with little value; and
n City retention of parkland where water and sanitary sewer services are readily accessible.
Conneaut has negotiated the contract over the past few months. A second group, Property Investment Enterprises, recently surfaced with a separate wind-farm proposal.
Some on council are leery of selling land, preferring to lease the property instead. City resident Richard Searles, who recently viewed a large wind farm in Lowville, N.Y., urged council to investigate all offers.
“Don’t give our land away,” Searles said at Monday’s meeting. “It’s too precious.”
