By Hugh Fisher
hfisher@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS — Members of the Kannapolis City Council voted Monday to pay an additional $70,000 for land making up part of the site of the Cabarrus Health Alliance building downtown.
The vote came after about 25 minutes of deliberations in closed session at the end of Monday’s regular council meeting.
Michael Kennedy, a resident of Concord, owns the house and land at 313 Juniper St., Kannapolis
In April 2009, he petitioned the city to have the property rezoned from Residential Village to Center City, a business zoning classification.
That petition came after the county’s health department had expressed an interest in locating a new facility on the site through eminent domain.
Talks with Kennedy broke down in the ensuing months over the price of the parcel.
Kennedy had previously said he wanted to receive a price closer to the tax value after rezoning.
According to Cabarrus County’s online database of tax values, the parcel is currently assessed at $246,000.
The last sale price listed for the land in the county’s online database was $86,000 in July 2007. It was not immediately clear who purchased the property in that transaction.
A subsequent transfer, with no sale price listed, to the current deed held by Kennedy took place in October 2008.
At the April 25 council session, members voted unanimously to condemn the parcel and pay Kennedy $125,000 — the amount an independent appraiser said the house and land were worth in the current market.
During the public hearing at that meeting, Kennedy acknowledged to Councilman Roger Haas that he had turned down an offer of $190,000 from the Cabarrus Health Alliance previously.
“We were trying to go through counteroffers,” Kennedy said in response to Haas’ question.
Two weeks later, City Manager Mike Legg said the vote to pay Kennedy $195,000 was an effort to avoid litigation.
“We got a request from the attorney representing the seller (Kennedy) which essentially raised some questions and asked for a lot of documents under the Freedom of Information Act,” Legg said.
Legg said there was a strong possibility of legal action against the city because of the vote to condemn the property.
Any trial could stretch out for months, delaying construction of the new Cabarrus Health Alliance facility, he said.
Kannapolis is building a new facility for the county’s health agency as part of the bond agreement between the city and Cabarrus County passed last year.
The city will build the building and hold it as collateral until the bonds are repaid.
Legg said that staff and the city’s legal counsel had discussed the property with Fred Pilkington, director of the Cabarrus Health Alliance.
The matter had dragged on so long, Legg said, that work on the new health department building has proceeded around Kennedy’s property.
Delays in construction could run as much as $5,000 per day, Legg said.
Also, he said, “the Health Alliance had to make the call, too, that this was the most prudent choice.”
The health agency will have to pay any costs above and beyond the agreed-upon amount.
“$125,000 was the appraisal,” Legg said. ‘(Kennedy) wanted $215,000.”
“Either way there were going to be complications,” Legg said.
Pilkington could not be reached for comment Monday night.
The settlement and purchase agreement adopted unanimously by the City Council has been agreed to in form by Kennedy and his attorney, Legg said.
That agreement gives the city the right to take possession of the property immediately, and releases them, the county and Cabarrus Health Alliance from all claims and liabilities.
Legg said he expects the deal to be closed on Wednesday.
Kennedy could not be reached for comment Monday night.
Contact Hugh Fisher via the editor’s desk at 704-797-4244.