Decision based on modest interest level of community
There is a big sale going on in Tracy, as City officials and the city council are lowering the cost of a trio of buildable parcels of land.
The City owns three residential lots — one at Broad Acres on Spruce St. and two on east Elm Street near Sebastian Park — it wants to unload to residents looking to build. However, at this point, the interest in those lots over the last six to eight months is tepid at best.
“The discussion I’d like to bring up is whether or not we should reduce the price of those (lots), and in coordination with that put some kind of incentives that might inspire and encourage someone to purchase them to build a new home,” Tracy Community Development Director Tom Dobson told the council at Mondays council meeting.”
The Spruce St. lot has been listed since August 2021; the adjacent Elm Street lots since last year. Dobson said all three of the lots require considerable tree/shrub removal.
“The one on Spruce has at least one tree that’s nearly dead and a couple bushes that are in the middle of it,” said Dobson. “That’s going to be either at the expense of the buyer or something that we as a city might need to do in the future. It’s the same with the lots on Elm Street.”
Last year, City workers spent about three days cutting down two rows of overgrown hedges near the Elm St. lots to give potential buys a more clear picture at what the lots look like.
“There are also a row of pine trees … at least a few of those pine trees will need to come out,” Dobson said. “There have been at least two occasions that individuals have inquired about the lots and asked if that would be their responsibility — at this juncture, yes it would be as the purchaser of that lot.” Dobson said that timing is also a factor, as interest rates are high; that has led to some apprehension among potential home owners and contractors.
“It looks like it will be a slow summer for construction in Tracy,” Dobson said.
Another factor working against any action on those lots is that Tracy already has three recently-built homes that are ready to be sold — the two Front St. homes and the one on 2nd St. East.
Ultimately, the council agreed to cut the cost of the two East Elm St. lots from $25,000 to $12,500, and the Spruce St. lot from $25,000 to $17,500.
The council voted 4-1 on setting the new prices, with council member Seth Schmidt casting the lone dissenting vote.
All council members agreed to lower the prices to get the lots filled on the City tax roll, but Schmidt said he would’ve liked to see the City cut the cost of the Elm St. lots to $19,000. Dobson estimated that the City will recoup the difference in prices through taxes in about three years.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to cutting the price of the lots to $19,000, although I’m a little skeptical if that would be enough to spark interest,” Schmidt said. “I think the cost of the lot if you’re building a new house is a fairly minimal expense in the big picture of how much it costs to build a new house.”
Council member Dave Tiegs, who made the motion to reduce the prices with the stipulation that construction has to commence within two years of when an purchase agreement is signed, said he is wary of reducing the Spruce St. lot too much for fear of current homeowners there comparing what they had to pay for their lot with a lowered cost of the fourth lot. Tiegs was a proponent of setting the cost of the Elm St. lots at $25,000, but said he wouldn’t be opposed to cutting that number in half as a way to get homes built there.
