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LAKE COUNTY – With a completed appraisal in hand, county officials believe acquiring 1,500 acres on Mt. Konocti is within their reach.
The Fowler family has offered the county the first chance to purchase the acreage on Mt. Konocti, as Lake County News was first to report last month. The family has held the property for more than 50 years.
The family plans to retain a small piece of property that includes a residence and a walnut orchard, Peter Windrem – the Fowlers' attorney – previously told Lake County News.
The county must complete the purchase by December 2009. If it can't, the Fowlers – who are not related to businesswoman Kathy Fowler – will offer the land on the open market, according to Windrem.
On Wednesday the county and representatives of groups working on the acquisition met and received the results of an appraisal on the land, county Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Cox told Lake County News.
Cox said the appraisal valued all of the land at $3.5 million. There are two parcels, a five-acre parcel where antenna and cell towers are located – which was valued at $900,000 – while the bulk of the property was valued at $2.6 million, said Cox.
The county and its partners – including the Bureau of Land Management – have the option of purchasing one or both parcels, said Cox.
“No formal decisions have been made at this point,” said Cox, adding that the matter hasn't yet gone before the Board of Supervisors.
But those on the ad hoc committee considering the purchase – including Supervisors Rob Brown and Ed Robey – are recommending purchasing both properties, said Cox.
Cox said the tower site is income-producing property that the county might purchase on its own. The income, he added, could help offset the county's costs of managing the land on the mountain.
Brown agreed that the county should buy the tower site, suggesting that other antennae and cell facilities could be clustered there and would therefore not have to be scattered around the county.
Also at the Wednesday meeting, the group met with a representative from the Trust for Public Land, which is offering to give the county help in the purchase, Cox said.
“They believe they can access grant funding to help this acquisition and they can do it within a year,” said Cox.
Since 1972, the Trust for Public Land has helped communities and agencies conserve two million acres across 47 states, the group's Web site reports.
The Trust for Public Land's representative will now meet with Windrem to discuss an option to purchase agreement, Cox explained. If, for any reason, they can't reach an agreement, the county will negotiate directly with Windrem.
Should the Trust for Public Land acquire the property, Cox said the group would then turn the land over to the county.
“BLM will be involved, we hope, to a certain extent,” he added.
BLM currently own about 1,000 acres on Mt. Konocti – including the Black Forest – according to Rich Burns, field manager in the BLM Ukiah office.
Committee members are very optimistic that they are going to be able to put the purchase together within the two-year time frame the Fowlers require, said Cox.
Said Brown, “This looks like something we can really do. It's really within reach.”
He added, “I've been the biggest critic of buying land, but there's always the exception.”
The land on top of Mt. Konocti has not business being a development, said Brown, who added that it's necessary that the county, and the public, own the land.
That, he said, will make it accessible to everybody for a variety of uses – from horseback riding to hiking to mountain biking.
“This is going to get a lot of public support,” said Brown.
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