City council denies snowshoe property sale

BESSEMER — Bessemer’s City Council denied selling the 7.1 acres of property near Steiger’s Field to private citizens, but did not make it an addition to nearby Bluff Valley Park as recommended by the city’s planning commission.

At its meeting Monday, the council voted against selling the property, with Marlene Zaleski casting the only dissenting vote.

“The feedback that I got from John Doe public was don’t sell it. Don’t sell any part of it,” Mayor Butch Semmerling said.

Ron Zaleski, a member of the planning commission, and his wife, Marlene, proposed buying 4.6 acres of city land north of West Iron Street, and between Massie Avenue and State Street.

Luke Peterson had proposed purchasing 2.5 acres of land.

Both parties own adjacent property, though the requests raised some opposition from city residents, who said the land was frequently used for snowshoeing in the winter.

“Normally when we have a planning commission look into this pretty extensively, we review their recommendation, we have to consider it one way or the other,” council member Doug Olsen said. “They put a lot of time in it, they’ve had a couple meetings, Mr. John Turkal, commission chair, maybe others, have walked it and whatever else.”

The planning commission reviewed the request last Wednesday and recommended against selling. Chair John Turkal explained the commission’s position at the council’s Monday meeting.

“I walked most of the area that’s under discussion, and to be quite frank with you it is not useless land,” he said. “To me, it has a lot of possibilities as far as parks or similar situations.”

Commissioners Ron Zaleski and Bill Steiger were absent from the meeting Wednesday.

“I think, myself personally, because I wasn’t there, it should be redone because I was the principal person involved with it,” Ron Zaleski said of the commission’s recommendation vote.

The Zaleskis had changed their proposal last week and submitted a new request asking for property up to Silver Street. However, the second request was also denied at this time.

Peterson told the planning commission last week that he would change his request to extend his current property line 160 feet north, but has yet to officially submit the proposal to the city.

City manager Mike Uskiewicz said the option of possibly selling property up to Silver Street was discussed at a previous council meeting.

“If you go to the corner of Iron and State streets, the city has already sold a portion of property to that corner property owner some time ago, so that they could extend their property,” he said.

The land that goes up to Silver Street is zoned residentially, though the majority of property being discussed is zoned Country Estate.

“The Planning Commission made a recommendation not to sell any land, period, and keep all of the land and make it part of the park,” council member Linda Nelson said, mentioning the commission discussed selling up to Silver Street.

The City Council agreed with the commission to not sell the land, but didn’t make the property part of Bluff Valley Park, which means the land could eventually be sold in the future if the council approves it.

Turkal said the commission also felt the proposal by the Zaleskis to reforest the land was not an adequate reason for the city to sell it.

“No one in the community came to our meeting in support of the city selling this land except for those individuals who petitioned to purchase it,” he said. “I have had comments from others who said they had no problem with the (residentially zoned property), but they would like to have an opportunity since it could be developed in the future, vis a vis Silver Street; that the public should be notified in the event (it is for sale).”

Turkal also mentioned the commission never received any written plan by the Zaleskis about what they wanted to do with the property except being told they would reforest it.

“We didn’t own the property yet, so I didn’t come forward with the plan I had,” Ron Zaleski said. “There’s no sense in saying I’m going to do this if I don’t own it.”