Council OKs selling city land

Meeting only briefly on Monday evening, the Vandalia City Council took action designed to lure two commercial businesses.
During that meeting, which lasted only two minutes, the council voted to seek bids on two parcels of land that the city owns in the western Interstate 70 interchange area.
Two ordinances on the sale of those parcels actually replace two ordinances OK’d by the council at its June 18 meeting.
One ordinance allows the city to accept bids on roughly 3.104 acres of land in the western interchange area.
The second ordinances allows the acceptance of bids for 6.126 acres of land in that same area.
Both parcels of land are located south of Walmart and west of the Vandalia Commons strip mall, west of Mattes Avenue.
Those parcels are in an area in which an existing local business was considering building a new facility about four years ago.
After Monday’s meeting, Mayor Rick Gottman explained that the city decided to put the parcels up for sale after two commercial prospects expressed interest in them.
By law, the city is required to sell land through a bidding process.
The ordinances state that the city will accept sealed bids on the two parcels.
Bids on the 3.104-acre parcel will be accepted until Monday, July 16, with all bids to be opened at a regular city council meeting that evening.
The ordinance on the sale of that parcel stipulates that the future use of that land will be “limited to a commercial building or buildings for offices or public entertainment.”
The original ordinance for that parcel also allowed for restaurants and/or retail sales.
Bids on the 6.126-acre parcel will be taken until 4 p.m. on Monday, July 30, with all bids to be opened at a special council meeting at 6 o’clock that evening.
The city stipulates that that land is to be used for agricultural implement sales and service.
The original ordinance allowed for commercial storage on that land.