Leistiko to Garner/Land Acquisition ProtocolJames Patrick, City Manager
Fred A. Leistiko, Airport Manager
Post Office Box 1997 - Kalispell, Montana 59903-1997 - Telephone (406) 250-3065
Fax - (406) 758-7758
TO: Frank Garner, Interim City Manager
Charlie Harbail, City Attorney
Susan Moyer, Community Development Director
P,
FM: Fred A. Leistiko, ' ` tanager
SUBJECT: Land Acquisition Protocol for FAA reimbursement at Kalispell City Airport
It is extremely important that we follow the FAA protocol on all our land purchases at the
City Airport so that there will be no glitches down the road when funding becomes available.
1. Offers and Final Sale Price. The first offer must be at least for the appraised value. All
offers and counter offers must be fully documented. Keeping track of these items is typically the
role of the Negotiator, whomever that may be. If Kalispell is doing this land negotiation on their
own„ they must keep a very good "LOG" of contact dates with the potential seller, offers made,
and counter offers received. Basically, a Negotiation History needs to be kept on each parcel.
The Final Sale Price if higher than the apprised value needs to be fully documented and discussed
with the FAA. They are flexible but higher prices must be justified in lieu of condemnation prior
to purchase, otherwise the risk is that the difference between appraised value and purchase price
is paid solely by the City.
2. Warranty Deed must be signed by the seller and include the legal description of the land
being purchased.
3. Certificate of Survey (COS). Each parcel acquired will need to be surveyed by a
Professional Land Surveyor, so that the exact description of ownership can be obtained and
shown on the Airport Exbibit A (Land Ownership leap). If the seller has a current COS from
a prior purchase, this would be most helpful. In some cases the prior surveyor would update the
information and file a new COS for the City at a lesser cost.
4. Certificate of Title must be written up and signed by the City Attorney, City Manager
and this must include the Book, Title, and Page of the filed COS. This will be sent to the FAA.
5. Mortgage Releases, Title Reports, etc. a thorough research must be made by the
Purchaser to assure the FAA, that the Iand being acquired with Federal Funds does not have any
encumbrances that would preclude it from being used for the intended airport purposes.
We must keep in mind that most of these out of pocket costs are also reimbursable with an
approved AIP at the time a grant is awarded. I am not a land acquisition expert, and these items
are normally left in the hands of a professional negotiator who has Federal Acquisition experience.
The only reason I bring these things to your attention is that we have made one acquisition so far
and I am not positive all these bases have been covered. We will have at least 10 or maybe 12 of
these acquisitions to do before this project is completed and if we don't keep up with the
paperwork, we can get buried. Dealing with the Federal Government can be cumbersome at
times, but once we get into the groove there are tremendous benefits to come our way.
FAL