Two families vie for Escondido land

By: QUINN EASTMAN - Staff Writer | Friday, March 24, 2006 10:22 PM PST ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- A tug of war over land acquired by the city under the threat of eminent domain a decade ago isn't over yet, even though the original owners agreed this week to pay a city-proposed price to buy it back.

As the original landowners wait for the city to respond, the owners of a local construction company said Friday that they believe they already have an agreement with city officials to buy the land.

Diane Morgan of Clifton C. Morgan Construction Inc. said she and her husband had bid on the 10 acres at the end of Puebla Street last year. They met with city officials several times and were invited to sign contracts last week, she wrote in a statement to the North County Times.

"All of these interactions have set binding expectations on our behalf that the city intends to sell the land to us," she wrote.

The city staff had recommended that the City Council vote to sell the land to Morgan Construction for $775,000 on Wednesday. The vote was delayed until April 5 because Mayor Lori Pfeiler was absent.

The original owners, the Redding family, had a representative deliver a letter to city officials Thursday accepting a price of $596,000 that they previously had said they were unwilling to pay for the property.

"We pulled together the money at the last minute," said Jane Redding, who lives in Nebraska, on Friday. "We had people we didn't even know offering us money to help out."

Redding said she asked city officials to give up plans to sell the former avocado grove that her family once owned off Bear Valley Parkway to Morgan Construction, which had planned to build three homes there.

The city had bought the land from the Redding family for $345,000 in 1995 as a site for a proposed reclaimed water reservoir, although the facility was never built. The family's lawyer had advised them to sell because the city would inevitably take them to court to obtain it, Redding said.

On March 2, City Attorney Jeff Epp sent the Redding family a letter stating the City Council had authorized him to try to find a way for the city to sell the land back to the family. In the letter, Epp proposed a price of $596,300, a figure that includes the original price, $13,000 in property taxes and $238,000 to compensate for the interest that would have been earned by the money.

The Reddings subsequently rejected that price, so Epp responded on March 16 with a letter that the city would move ahead with a sale to the Morgans.

In her fax to the North County Times on Friday, Morgan said that she and her husband received "verbal agreements" from the city in closed session meetings on Feb. 8 and March 16 that the city would sell them the land.

However, a majority of City Council members said Friday they would be willing to approve selling the land back to the Reddings.

"I think the Reddings should be able to acquire the land as long as the city recovers its costs," said Councilman Sam Abed, but added that the council still has to vote on the decision.

"The process was not ideal," he said. "The Morgans played by the rules."

Councilwoman Marie Waldron said that the city had a special obligation to give the Reddings a chance because the city had begun the process of condemning their property years ago, although the Redding family responded by willingly selling the land.

"Even the threat of eminent domain is serious," she said Friday. "We can't take it lightly."

Contact staff writer Quinn Eastman at (760) 740-5412 or qeastman@nctimes.com.