Plymouth officials have again stalled a plan to turn the Atlantic Country Club in South Plymouth into a residential development.
For the second time in a month, the town’s lawyer has notified the club’s owners that purchase and sale agreements submitted to the town for approval were rife with deficiencies and do not reflect legitimate offers.
By law, the town has the right to match any “bona fide” offer to purchase the portion of the land currently classified for recreational use under a state law called 61b. The law allows the town to either exercise or waive its right to buy the property.
But the proposed buyer, Ben Virga of Duxbury, said the documents filed with the town are “completely valid” and that he and the seller – the McSharry family – will not revise them again.
“What has been submitted to the town meets the requirements of the statute 100 percent and should be under formal review,” he said.
“We will defer to the seller on how they want to address the issue with the town,” he added.
The owners could possibly go to court to try to force the town to make a decision.
The town rejected the first sale plan in April, notifying the McSharrys – who have owned the club for decades — that the buyer’s offer of $20 million was not “bona fide” because it far exceeded the value of the 176 acres the town has the right to buy.
In late May, the McSharrys’ lawyer tried again, this time submitting two purchase and sale agreements: one for the recreation land — at a price of $19 million — and a second one for two other lots — costing $1 million.
The buyer and seller believe that the value of the land is whatever a legitimate buyer is willing to pay — not the depressed value of the property because of its classification as recreation land.
But in her latest letter to the sellers dated June 16, Kathleen McKay, Plymouth’s general counsel, argued that an offer must be tied to the current — not the future — value of the land.
That parcel is assessed by the town at $651,325. The number reflects tax breaks the owners received because recreation land was taxed at a discounted rate. (The McSharrys received more than $120,000 in tax breaks over the past five years alone, according to town assessing data.)
Even without the tax break, the property’s assessment would be $2.6 million — still far below what the buyers offered to pay.
The offers are “wildly inconsistent with the current valuation of the property,” McKay wrote. Even if the land were not in recreation status, she wrote, an offer of $19 million “would be more than seven times” its full assessed value.
“Instead of the good faith required by law, your second notice appears to be made in bad faith to defeat the town’s statutory right of first refusal,” she wrote.
Residents of the Little Sandy Pond neighborhood and Select Board members fear the developer wants to build hundreds of housing units, changing the character of an area where zoning rules have traditionally required large lots.
Using the land for a lot of residential housing is the only way that the proposed purchase price makes sense, observers say.
“To make the $20 million viable, it would have to be really packed in there,” said Select Board chair Kevin Canty.
“I don’t want to see a 40b down there,” he said, referring to a large-scale development that can bypass local zoning and other rules. “The infrastructure is not set up for that and it would be a significant change in the character of that particular area of town. It’s just not the right place for something like that.”
Virga wouldn’t detail his plans for the property, saying only that he “continues to do due diligence to see what options the 180+ acre site will provide.”
Some residents have urged the town to buy the land — to leave it open space or perhaps to turn it into a municipal golf course.
Canty said the town can’t decide what to do until it receives a legitimate offer — although now it doesn’t appear a new offer will be forthcoming.
“What they have produced so far is not a bona fide offer,” he said. “That is the position of the town.
“It’s up to the parties involved in the sale to put together a legitimate bona fide offer so the town can assess whether we want to step into the shoes of the buyer under the right of first refusal,” Canty said.
“Until we get a legitimate bona fide offer we can’t make that determination,” Canty said.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.