Dear City Council and City Staff,
The Senior Center rents 167 North High Street for $1 per year.
The Citizens of Sebastopol own 167 North High Street.
The Senior Center is a financially successful, community organization that serves people living in West County and beyond.
The City of Sebastopol is in a financial crisis and looks like it is about to engage in a very expensive police excessive use of force lawsuit.
The Senior Center wants to expand its space; 167 North High Street is too small for it.
The City of Sebastopol wants to expand its space and has no money for new buildings. The City should take over 167 North High Street and use it to expand its office capacity at no cost to citizens.
As the Senior Center has donors and grants that far exceed the fundraising potential of the City, I would suggest that the Senior Center look for partners to expand its space. The Rite Aid space is very large and could be a wonderful senior center.
If the City would like to know the value of the Senior Center, the City can engage commercial real estate brokers to give them a listing price. This would cost nothing except for staff time. As the building is not up for sale, there is no use spending money on an official appraisal as markets change over time. A meeting with 3 commercial real estate brokers should give the City a sense of the building’s fair market value without spending additional money.
Please honor the fact that 167 North High Street is owned by the Citizens of Sebastopol and that any money that would come from the sale of 167 North High Street would need to address critical needs like road repair and repair to parks. The money from any sale of 167 North High Street does not belong to the Senior Center. It belongs to the citizens and needs to be invested into the backlog of capital repairs which currently are over $20,000,000 between the roads, sidewalks, parks and trails.
Thank you,
Kate Haug