Appraised Value of Land and Bid Value Did Not Come Close

OURAY – Due to the “wide disparity” between the appraised price and the bid price, the Ouray Board of County Commissioners on Monday denied the only bid for the purchase of surplus land located just south of Ouray off U.S. Highway 550.

By a previous resolution, the commissioners identified six lots of land as surplus after resident Bob Smith, who owns lots adjacent to the county-owned land, asked the county if he could either create an access easement through the property or to buy the property outright so that he could have access to his lots for future residential development. After deeming the property as surplus in April, Smith was able to bid on the six lots by county policy.

Ouray County hired an appraiser to value the lots, which came to a total of $88,000. ($45,000 for Lots 3-5 and $45,00 for lots 21-22.) Smith’s bid, and the only bid submitted, came to $7,770. This difference in price was the basis of the commissioners’ denial of the sale.

“It is due the wide disparity in these values that we reject the bid and not dispose of the property at this time,” Commissioner Keith Meinert said before making the motion for denial.

Before the commissioners ruled on the purchase denial, Smith told the commissioners that he and County Assessor Susie Mayfield had been up on the land recently with another appraiser who said the land had some value, but not much.

“His comment to me was that the property had some value but he did not feel it was buildable county property,” Smith said. “There is no access to it, no utilities. That was his remark to me.”

Commissioner Lynn Padgett initially wanted to table the decision to get further information to include more comparable appraisals of similar properties with similar issues. The appraiser did include some comps in the appraisal that was made public on Monday.

“I want to leave the door open for an additional piece of data,” Padgett said. Both Meinert and Commissioner Heidi Albritton disagreed in that they had enough information there to make a decision and that if Smith would like to continue and re-bid on the land, he could start the process over again.

“I don’t want to get into a debate about the proper valuation,” Meinert said. “Until someone who has the right credentials brings us something different than what we have now, then we get into a battle between appraisers. Right now, this is the only information we have. I don’t see any way that we can dispose of that property below that price.”

Albritton agreed.

“Given what we have today, I am comfortable making a decision today,” she said.

The commissioners then unanimously denied the purchase. It is unclear what Smith’s next step bill will be if he decides to re-bid on the property or to seek a right-of-way easment of the property but did say, upon leaving, , “My attorneys are on standby. They will be in touch with you.”