January 2023 Status … It’s Not Done Yet
In December, the City made an overly generous offer to the School District to try to settle the District’s lawsuit. The School District flat out rejected the offer – acting like arrogant bullies as they refused to negotiate anything but their desired $6.5M sales price.
The taxpaying voting citizens are the owners of Oppenlander Fields, regardless of whose sign is on the property. In order to maintain our ownership and keep Oppenlander as a community asset we are taking a more active role in moving the sales process along.
Some of your neighbors and families attended and spoke at both the West Linn City Council meeting and the West Linn-Wilsonville School District Board meeting on Monday, January 9th. The messages were powerful and pointed. The energy was higher at the Board meeting where parents and voters demanded the School District honor the Sales Agreement they signed in January 2022.
We are investigating submitting and Amicus Brief to the court. This “friends of the court” brief would share how the local citizens, who are the parties most impacted by the sales transaction, will be impacted if the sale proceeds or not. If you can refer an attorney that might be able to guide and help us please let us know. info@FriendsOfOppenlander.org
Press the big blue button below to be added to our email list. We are going to have to keep the visibility and pressure up. While we will post on social media, this email list is the fastest and best way for us to reach you.
In the absence of this purchase, Oppenlander will become either 35 single-family R-10 homes, or up to 65 duplex units per the new Orgon law requiring cities to increase housing density, regardless of the R-10 zoning. All of these residents will be looking for more park access – and we will have just eliminated the only full-sized athletic fields in the central and north sides of the city.
Link to the city’s Oppenlander web page which has all of the details of transaction, including copies of key documents.
Link to Dec. 2022 West Linn Tidings update We cannot past the entire article here due to copyright restrictions.
The School District’s attorney responded to the City’s December offer to restart the process with a new appraisal and bond measure … “If the City was interested in a fair and transparent process, they would offer the strategy of a joint appraiser again, or accept the value of $6.5 million,” Zahniser [the District’s attorney] wrote in the Dec. 21 counter offer. “The only reason this proposal is being made is to, once again, attempt to secure the property for less than fair market value and swindle the District’s constituents and shared taxpayers of this asset.”
It should be noted that as residents of West Linn, we are half of the constituents of the School District, and no, the City is not swindling us.
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Join of your neighbors who have already joined the Save Oppenlander team!
