MILTON — The City Council voted in favor of tasking City Manager Brian Watkins to negotiate the purchase of waterfront property located downtown on Willing Street.
Council Member Alan Lowery cast the lone dissenting vote during Monday night’s executive committee meeting,
City officials hope to negotiate with property owner Milton Holdings LLC in obtaining the parcel to further accommodate the city’s Riverwalk project.
Earlier this year, the state awarded $198,048 in funding toward preliminary work on the Riverwalk’s south end. Engineering would include design, survey and geotech studies, the Press Gazette has reported.
“(The state) said they would pay for the engineering and (the city) would pay for the land cost,” Watkins said.
While the main goal of acquiring the property is to accommodate the Riverwalk project, the property could also benefit the city’s outdoor concert series ‘Bands on the Blackwater,’ by allowing for more space, Watkins said.
Former council member and current city planning board member Paul Kilmartin, Milton Holdings’ president, is only interested in selling the property located at 5154 Willing St., according to Watkins.
During Monday night’s executive committee meeting, Council Member Jimmy Messick reminded the council of a recent source of funding from Gulf Power that could help the city buy the property.
“(Gulf Power) had an audit and they found that they had miscoded our accounts,” Watkins said. “We have a utility tax and a franchise fee that Gulf Power pays to us based on having their electrical service to the city, and they had under-paid us by just shy of $135,000.”
In addition, Gulf Power paid the city $7,800 for the purchase of easements.
Since the vote was not unanimous, the item is expected to be brought before the council as a separate item from the consent agenda during Tuesday’s regular council meeting, which is set for 5 p.m. at city hall.
Should the item pass next week, Watkins expects to have a city real estate agent begin talks with a Milton Holdings LLC representative.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Council considers purchasing waterfront property