Commentary: Secret sale of public land gains profit, but for who?
The Fort DuPont Redevelopment and Preservation Corp. (FDRPC) recently sold the 133-acre Grassdale parcel of Fort DuPont State Park at a price of $5 million for development as a private RV campground accommodating up to 475 vehicles. Fightdecorruption.com is partnering with Erica Lindsey and more than 4,000 people petitioning our state government to reverse the Grassdale sale.
On March 25, 2021, FDRPC signed an “indemnification agreement,” which remained secret until revealed by Freedom of Information Act requests. In this agreement, FDRPC admits to a “title defect,” which they are “not able to correct.”
In 1994, the state purchased Grassdale with Delaware Land and Water Conservation Trust funds under the Delaware Land Protection Act (DLPA). Land purchased with DLPA funds are protected “in perpetuity” and cannot be sold for private development. In a July 22, 2020, memorandum, FDRPC counsel Max Walton claimed ignorance of these statutes on behalf of himself and the FDRPC board.
One would think that, following the belated discovery of this title defect, FDRPC would either withdraw from the sale or go to court to remedy the defect. Instead, they have entered into the “indemnification agreement’ under which Stewart Title Guaranty Co. agrees to provide title insurance with “affirmative coverage.” In the event of a Delaware Land Protection Act claim, FDRPC would pay the first $100,000 in legal costs to defend the title defect. This process will never produce a clean title for the property.
Combining the $100,000 indemnification cost with $150,000 in real estate commissions, the closing costs for this deal are a quarter-million. Are these closing costs being paid with taxpayer funds? As a public-private partnership, more than $16 million in state funds has been appropriated for FDRPC.
FDRPC intends to treat Grassdale like any private real estate sale, taking the $250,000 out of the $5 million in proceeds. However, Title 30, Chapter 54 of the Delaware Code states: “Said funds shall be deposited in the Endowment Account to be immediately available for other projects.”
Board minutes reveal that neither FDRPC nor their partners did market research regarding the viability of Fort DuPont as the location for an RV campground. The website rvshare.com lists the top 10 RV campgrounds in Delaware, and all 10 of them are in Kent or Sussex County, near the beaches.
Delaware City, with its huge refinery, is an industrial area. In 2012, the Delaware River was named the fifth-most polluted river in the United States. Even though the river has had some success with the cleanup of pollution, the Delaware River still does not meet the standard for swimmable or fishable conditions in the region.
Based on a FOIA response, no request for proposal was issued in selecting Blue Water Development Group to develop the RV campground. FDRPC sold 133 acres of state park land without getting a single competing bid.
Jack Guerin is an anti-corruption advocate with fightdecorruption.com.
