DNR Buys a Pig in Poke, for a High Prices

MD pays steep price for Hallowing Point site with access to the Patuxent

A one-time mobile home park in such poor condition that many of its dwellings violated livability codes is slated to be transformed into one of Maryland’s newest waterfront parks as well as offices for the Department of Natural Resources.

But some are questioning whether the state paid too much for a tract with marginal ecological value that had little chance of ever being developed.

Over the last three years, the DNR has used Program Open Space funding to buy three Calvert County parcels totaling nine acres at Hallowing Point on the Patuxent River. State and county officials plan to turn it into a waterfront park with a boat ramp, fulfilling a long-neglected need for more public access to the water.
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But Hallowing Point cost the state $1.96 million, more than 60 percent more than two independent appraisals of the land’s worth. A third appraisal valued it at $2 million, but the comparable properties on which that was based had been enhanced with public water and sewer, which Hallowing Point didn’t have and was unlikely to get.

Though the site has some history — it was once a steamboat landing, and in 1907 the steamer St. Mary’s wrecked there — the tract earned only a 39 out of a possible 100 points on a state scoring system to rate possible acquisitions for cultural or ecological values. But DNR officials said state law permits exceptions for certain low-scoring properties if they serve a greater purpose, which in this case involved providing public access.

 $2 million for 9 acres seems like way over a reasonable price, even waterfront.

But the deal raises questions about whether public access is an important enough criterion for open-space acquisitions that it overrides other concerns. So low-lying that the river often laps over its sandy ground, Hallowing Point was unlikely to be high-value real estate. With a history of failing septic systems, views of a power plant, and no plans to provide public water and sewer, it did not seem a likely candidate for preservation. And the two appraisals that compared it with other mobile-home parks without public water were close to $1 million less than what the public paid.
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“It’s on a site that can’t be developed. Nature would preserve it on its own just fine,” said Patuxent Riverkeeper Frederick Tutman. “Did we just bail out a bad investment? What are we not able to buy because we bought this?”

Hallowing Point’s previous owner, Michael Mona, had proposed replacing the mobile home park with 34 new townhouses, each selling for about $550,000. But much of the property is in a floodplain, and Maryland’s Critical Area law restricts waterfront development. To develop the property, Mona would have needed public water and sewer, which required county approval — and never came.
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DNR spokesman Gregg Bortz said that, as a condition of the sale, Mona had to remediate all septic pollution, close the water wells and remove all the trailers. Bortz said the state paid more than the first two appraisals so the seller could recoup his cleanup costs. Calvert County commissioners and the state Board of Public Works approved the purchase and related projects.

Program Open Space is funded through a half percent transfer tax on real estate sales. With more than 95 percent of the Chesapeake Bay shoreline in private hands, public access has been an important goal of the program.

I'm not a  huge fan of the "Program Open Space". While there is a distinct lack of public access to the shores of Chesapeake Bay, it seems to me that very little effort goes into providing the public access after they take over the property. They seem content to add it to their holdings, and not spend the money necessary to make it useful or even accessible to the public.