Salisbury leaders, developers at odds over property purchase

SALISBURY, Md. – Salisbury leaders are trying to settle a dispute surrounding an affordable housing project.

Dispute Over Delay

The City Council, Mayor, and developers are at odds over a purchase that would be necessary to move rehabilitation of Mitchell Landing Apartments forward.

“My message to the mayor is to do his job,” said David Layfield of Green Street Housing, LLC. “All we’ve seen from the mayor, so far, is obstructionism around everything housing.”

However, Mayor Randy Taylor is pushing back on claims that he is intentionally slowing down Green Street Housing and the Wicomico Housing Authority’s purchase of the property from the City. While he does agree that money is the source of the dispute, Mayor Taylor says it’s in the city’s best interest to pump the breaks.

“We feel like what was voted on, and what was agreed to by the Council were two different deals,” Mayor Taylor said. “I’m certainly for this project; I’m just saying we need to get a representative value – not a full value – but a representative value for this property.”

Problem Property

The property is plagued with problems, says Layfield; black mold can be found throughout one of the buildings, along with a pool of standing water in the crawl space, and widespread damage from vandalism.

12 of the 24 units are not accessible, and some have been condemned.

“The upper units are [not occupiable], based simply on the fact that the stairwells, which are made of metal and concrete, have rusted through to the point where it is not safe to walk on,” Layfield said. “Some of the lower floor units are condemned, and [not occupiable], because there is so much rot in the floor joists and support beams that the floor has been collapsing.”

The plan is for developers to spend about $4 million on construction, or about $166,000 per unit. “We have already invested $750,000 cash into this project, into architectural fees, consulting fees, all sorts of expenses, in addition to hundreds and hundreds of staff hours,” Layfield said.

The Mayor believes that the units in questions are not in bad shape, and says he recently sent a team to clear that standing pool of water. Of the mold, “That unit needs to be gutted and rehabbed, but the rest of them are not in bad condition,” he said.

Doing the Deal

Monday night, Salisbury City Council voted to move forward on selling the property, without the Mayor’s signature, to the tune of $1.3 million. Council members cited a land disposition agreement from 2021, between the City and the purchasers.

“The management company hired by the City had mismanaged the property, and because of that, we fired them,” said Councilmember Michele Gregory. “The only reason that the state was giving us the allowance to manage the property ourselves was because we had this deal on the table.”

Mayor Taylor argues that there’s no race against the clock.

“I’ve had the conversations with the state; I know exactly where we stand, and I’ve made a commitment to them to move it along in whatever form we can,” Mayor Taylor said.

Council President D’Shawn Doughty is recusing himself from the signing of the deal, as he is an employee of Green Street Housing. Vice President Angela Blake may sign the documents in his place.

Council Concerns

Gregory, meanwhile, says leaders remain concerns that if the deal does not move forward, the buyer may pull out.

“The debt that was on this piece of property would become due; we would have to pay for that debt. This was a loan that we were allowed to not pay on it, based on the type of loan it was,” Gregory said. “That would come out of taxpayer dollars.”

Councilmembers also worried, says Gregory, about potential litigation from the developer; Layfield has already made clear that he plans to take the dispute to court if the deal falls through.

Looking Ahead

And while Mayor Taylor agrees that this project needs to move forward, he also says ensuring what he says is a fair purchase value could mean investments in other areas of need.

“I want to get a fair, representative value for the city’s assets, primarily because it’s the city’s assets, and the taxpayers’ money,” Mayor Taylor said. “This is several hundred thousand dollars worth of an error, that I think was made, that we could redeploy to other projects, to include rehab for existing people that are having struggles, who own their homes.”

Mayor Taylor says he is working to convene a meeting with all interested parties within the next week, and is hoping for a resolution.

“I’d like to have a rational conversation about the whole thing,” Mayor Taylor said. “I don’t think that project is worth nothing.”