Vacant Maumee land to be sold as homesites

Maumee council members decided that the best use for this city-owned plot would be single-family homes.

For sale: Five residential lots for single-family homes only, superbly located in the center of Maumee. Buyers are limited to one lot each, and must plan to build soon. Contact city officials for more information.

Maumee may be running ads similar to this as part of its plan to dispose of an acre of property on the corner of William and Gibbs streets that was the site of the city's fire station.

With the old station demolished late last month, City Council has turned to the question of what to do with the vacant acre in the city's midst. Last week, its building and lands committeedecided to recommend that it be reserved for single-family residential use only, which is its current zoning classification.

Committee members thought this was only logical. Their landlocked city can't grow by annexation, and is in need of additional housing stock.

At the same time, they didn't want the lots to be bought as an investment by a developer who would sit on them until he could get a higher price.

The committee members - Rich Carr, Mike Coyle, and Tim Pauken - also agreed that in the current weak real estate market, the city should be in no hurry to sell.

Bruce Wholf, the city's building and zoning inspector, estimated the four single lots, which are 56 feet wide and 132 feet deep, would sell for $25,000 in the current market. That's $5,000 to $10,000 less than they would have brought two years ago. The double corner lot, which held the fire station, would fetch more, he said.

The single lots held homes that the city bought and razed in the 1990s in anticipation of a fire station expansion. The land was never needed. In the end, the city built a new fire station on Illinois Avenue.