June 8, 2005

The Honorable Mark R. Warner

Office of the Governor

State Capitol, Third Floor

Richmond, VA 23219

Dear Governor Warner:

We want to apprise you of a land acquisition trend that is adversely affecting present acquisitions of State park land and will continue to adversely affect future acquisitions unless corrected. We trust that you will follow up and expeditiously take appropriate action(s).

The trend of which we speak can perhaps best be characterized as “chronic procrastination” in reaching closure on acquisitions. Given the fluid nature of the real estate market and the rapidly escalating real estate values across the State, appraisals can change dramatically over short periods of time and delays in reaching transaction closure, especially protracted delays, can exacerbate the State’s relationship with potential sellers. The existing trend of chronic procrastination in reaching closure has resulted in loss of particularly desirable property tracts, in turning present willing sellers into unwilling sellers, and in creating a stigma on the process such that the number of willing sellers in the future will certainly be reduced.

That this trend exists and is systemic became clear to us during our recent Spring Conference. As you may know, the Virginia Association for Parks is the statewide umbrella organization for the volunteers that work in support of Virginia’s state parks as well as the national parks, monuments, and historic sites located within the Commonwealth.

During the “open floor” segment of our business meeting, attendees representing one state park raised the issue of the protracted acquisition process taking place at that park, said that the Department of General Services appeared to be the driving source of the protracted time, and inquired as to whether other attendees were experiencing similar problems at their parks. The following examples were among those cited in the ensuing discussion:

· A badly needed tract adjoining the New River Trail State Park was lost when the willing seller became an unwilling seller due to the protracted process. It is our understanding that the acquisition process here involved five different appraisals made over an extended period – one by the owner and four by the State. The willing seller became unwilling, the property was lost to the State, and the property almost immediately sold for an amount that considerably exceeded each of the five appraisals required by the State.

· A priority acquisition to protect the entrance to Hungry Mother State Park took in the vicinity of 19 months to close after the seller and the state had reached agreement on sales price. This put an undue hardship on the seller who has been vocal in saying that he would not deal with the state if he had it to do over again.

· A property at Mason Neck was to have closed last August but did not close until this year. While this acquisition was ultimately successful, the time it took to reach closure imposed hardship on the widowed, elderly seller. Ultimately, the seller’s frustration reached the point where she set a “drop dead” date and asserted that, if this date was exceeded, the deal would be off.

· A property transaction at James River State Park was not completed for almost a year beyond the original closing date. As a result, the park system was unable to provide a boat livery service for a year and, due to lack of use during that period, the boat launch area has silted in so badly that costly repairs will be necessary before the service can be implemented.

· A property at Natural Tunnel State Park was to have closed early this year and the park system had planned to use this property as a bunkhouse for Youth Conservation Corps participants during this year’s program. This acquisition has still not closed and the Youth program is to begin in a few weeks.

We recognize that several parks were not represented at our conference; that the examples we provide are derived from third party sources; and that our examples lack specificity in terms of dates and causes. In an attempt to develop and provide you with more specific information on these (and possibly other) examples, we wrote the Department of Conservation and Recreation Director and requested access to an audit report that we understood had been completed earlier this year and addressed the acquisition process. Our request was made on May 19, 2005. As of the date of this letter, the Director has not responded to our request, not even to acknowledge it.

Thus, given the severity of the issue from our perspective, we chose to provide you with the information we have at this time rather than to docilely wait on the Director’s response or try to expedite his response by making a Freedom of Information Act request. Over the years, many potential acquisitions of park land were lost due to the lack of funding. The 2002 Bond Referendum provided much needed resources in this regard. But, now that some funds are available, present and future acquisitions are being endangered by unbelievably protracted State processes. Clearly, the end result being achieved is not what the citizenry envisioned when overwhelmingly approving the 2002 Bond Referendum.

We trust that you will expeditiously pursue the issue we raise and take appropriate corrective action. If we can be of help, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Johnny Finch, President

Cc: The Honorable W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr.

Joseph H. Maroon