(emailed November 30, 2022)
Hello supporters of the Chelan Butte,
First off, I want to thank everyone who responded to our October 3rd request to email the Chelan mayor and city council about the allocation of $500,000 in the City budget toward the purchase of the Golden Gate Ventures properties on the Butte. The City indicated that they received 150 emails supporting the allocation of these funds toward the purchase and that, to the best of their recollection, this was more written input from the public than they have ever received for any project!
The bottom line is that the City has indeed allocated$500,000 for this project in the draft budget.
Up until yesterday, I thought that this email was going to be focused on how everything was falling into place for potentially getting these properties secured through the Trust for Public Land early in 2023. However, I just found out yesterday that the property owner has signed an Option Agreement for purchase with a developer. We knew this was a possibility, but were hoping that higher interest rate sand the potential for a slower economy would keep this from happening in the near term. No such luck.
The Option Agreement does not guarantee a sale, but in this case gives the developer exclusive rights to purchase the properties for at least the next nine months. During this time they will be doing their due diligence and discussing their plans with the City to determine if they are viable. At this point we do not know who the developer is (they are based in Washington), so if anyone out there finds out, please let us know. The properties have been under OptionAgreements before and were not ultimately purchased, so their future is far from certain.
We are still in the early stages of figuring out what our next steps will be, but we know they will involve discussions with the City, the Trust for Public Land, and other stakeholders. We also will seek to convey to the developer that any proposal that they submit for approval will receive the highest level of scrutiny from the public and we would hope that the City would be unwilling to grant any variances from City code requirements.
As we learn more, I will continue to keep you informed. We anticipate that there will be additional opportunities in the future for you to show your support for preserving the Butte, so I thank you in advance for staying engaged.
Happy holidays to you all,
Brian Patterson – CBC President
on behalf of the CBC board:
Lisa Garvich – Vice President
Tony Crosetto – Treasurer
Mary Bider – Secretary