Hello,
This is my contribution for Citizen's Discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting:
Good morning,
During the public comment process for the land swap, we were told that the Palmer Land Trust would prepare a Conservation Easement for Strawberry Fields, and that this process would take one year from the date that the land swap was approved.
The land swap was approved by the City Council on May 24th 2016.
I was shocked when the city announced that they had closed the deal on December 30th 2016.
The city gave us no explanation as to why the deal closed nearly 5 months early.
Did a legitimate Conservation Easement exist on the closing date?
We were specifically told that the Conservation Easement would take one year, and that the deal would not close until one year after the land swap had been approved.
Why did the city deviate from the public commitment, and close early?
I find it interesting that the deal closed exactly 3 weeks to the day before Donald Trump was sworn in as President.
Did the City or the Broadmoor fear some kind of interference from Washington after President Obama left office, and rush the closing of the land swap?
I did send a communication to the Criminal Division of the Attorney General's office in Washington DC on March 30th 2016 expressing some concerns.
They responded 8 days later and told me that they were forwarding my concerns to the FBI.
Had the City heard anything from the Attorney General or the FBI?
Thank you, Carl Strow