Land question on Nov. 6 ballot

OXFORD VILLAGE – A piece of municipal-owned land that was supposed to be on the ballot two years ago, but wasn’t due to an administrative snafu, will finally make an appearance on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Voters are being asked to give the village permission to sell a 0.589-acre piece of vacant land situated in the municipality’s northwest quadrant near the Polly Ann Trail.

Currently zoned for single-family residential use, the parcel is located at the southwest corner of Dayton and Maple streets.

This is not a vote to sell the property to a specific party for a specific amount or for a specific purpose.

If the ballot question is approved, there’s no guarantee the land would ever be sold. Voters would simply be giving village officials the option to sell it in the future. There would be no expiration date on that approval.

Village Manager Joseph Madore indicated the municipality doesn’t have any potential buyers lined up.

“I’ve not had a single person contact me (expressing) any interest,” he said.

The village charter requires voter-approval “to sell any property of value in excess of five dollars per capita, according to the last preceding U.S. Census.”

Based on the 2010 U.S. Census, which counted 3,436 residents in the village, any property worth more than $17,810 requires a vote of the people to sell it.

The parcel is one of three pieces of land donated to the village in 1995 by the Oxford Housing Corporation. According to a letter dated Oct. 28, 1994, the parcels were given in “the hope” they could be used for “community activities or development.”

In the November 2016 election, village residents voted 805 to 738 to authorize the municipality to sell two of the donated parcels (1.46 acres and 0.645 acre), if it so chooses.

Those two pieces are also zoned for single-family residential use.

When council asked then-Manager Joe Young why the 0.589-acre parcel had not been included on the November 2016 ballot, he called it “an oversight.” Young explained when council passed its motion authorizing the ballot question, the parcel identification number was not included in the wording.

Madore said the purpose of the current ballot question is to ensure the village has the same legal authority to sell all three properties should the need or desire ever arise.

“(It’s) more of a housekeeping thing than anything,” he said.

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