ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 13, 1996 TAG: 9605130120
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
LACY ALEXANDER says so, but neighbors selling homes and at least one real-estate agent disagree.
As Lacy Alexander leans back in a lawn chair, the only discernible sounds and smells come from two hummingbirds and the flowers they drone around in his front yard on Bradshaw Road.
Alexander says he can sometimes detect a "sour smell" or hear a distant rumbling as the trash trains unload at the Smith Gap landfill early in the morning, but he admits some neighbors say they've never noticed either phenomenon.
He says his best proof that the landfill is located less than a mile away is the year and a half he's had his brick ranch house and surrounding 47 acres on the market. In that time, he's had three real-estate agents involved and an estimated 15 to 20 people visit to look at the property.
"Those who were familiar with that area of the county, one of the first questions they would ask is, 'Is it near the landfill?''' says Jim Martin, who listed the property over the past fall and winter without success. "The public perception is, 'It's there, and I don't like it.'''
Martin provided Alexander with a letter stating, "There is no doubt in my mind that the value of your property has been adversely affected" by the landfill as well as the fact that American Electric Power's preferred route for its proposed 765-kilovolt power line through the Catawba Valley would run through Alexander's land. A major transmission line already crosses his property, and the one being considered would probably take out his house.
As far as Alexander is concerned, his land has been jinxed with a double whammy.
"It's unsalable, unless I give it away," he says.
There are a half-dozen "For Sale" signs along Bradshaw Road, but not everyone trying to sell property in the area agrees that they're in a losing battle with the landfill.
"My gut feeling is that it is not an issue at this point," says Billie Reid, who is selling her home, located about a mile farther from the landfill than Alexander's land. If potential buyers "have any comment at all, it's 'We wanted a basement' or 'It's a little too far out.'''
Eric Thomas, a real estate agent with Olde Colony Realty, says he sold a house eight miles from the landfill on Bradshaw Road after it had been listed just 12 days. Another house nearby sold last year after two days on the market.
"I've had no problems at all with Bradshaw Road," he says.
When Alexander first put his property on the market, with Emmett Dudding of Woltz & Associates, he turned down an offer for $275,000 based on an appraisal that said the property was worth $350,000. Dudding estimates the property is worth between $225,000 and $250,000.
Since then, Alexander has dropped his asking price to $299,000, but county assessors have placed a value of just $205,000 on the property.
"Everybody wants it at the county's assessed price," Alexander says. "No. I'm no dummy. You can't build this house for that."
Thomas says the general rule of thumb is to use a selling price that adds 15 percent to the assessed value. He isn't familiar with Alexander's property and can't say whether it has been improperly assessed, but he says buyers are almost certainly looking at the county's figures, right or wrong.
Another factor that likely is making it difficult for Alexander to find a buyer, Thomas adds, is the market segment.
"When you get into the $300,000 range, I'd say [only] 10 percent of your buyers can buy that," he says.
Alexander says his price reflects the improvements he's made to the property since he purchased the land 12 years ago for $47,000. At the time, he says, it was "a no-man's land." He first built what is now an attached garage, where he and his wife and children lived while he finished the house. Since then, he's built a shop and several other farm buildings, drilled two wells, installed three septic systems, and added a wooden fence that encompasses the tract.
"I built this house and improved the property, and this is the place I wanted to live to a ripe old age," he says.
Those plans changed two years ago when his 30-year marriage ended in divorce. Alexander mortgaged his home to settle the divorce with the idea that he would sell the property later to pay off the debt. When he got behind on his $2,000 monthly payments, he had to file for personal bankruptcy to halt a foreclosure sale. If he doesn't succeed in selling the property himself within six months, foreclosure proceedings will resume.
Alexander isn't the type to give in with a whimper, however. A disabled veteran who lost his construction company to an unrelated bankruptcy four years ago, he turned his energies toward obtaining a license as a private investigator, attending public meetings to speak against the landfill, and organizing Civil War re-enactments that were staged on his property.
Alexander decided to hold his own auction in an effort to get the best possible price for his land. Jim Woltz, who will oversee the auction, says it will serve as a "true test" of whether the landfill has affected property values along Bradshaw Road.
Woltz says the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, which operates the landfill, designed it to have a minimal impact on the area by using trains to haul trash and thus eliminating heavy truck traffic along Bradshaw Road. But the authority should still be responsible in cases where the landfill has devalued property, he adds.
A citizens advisory committee involved in opening the landfill agreed and created a process for owners of property within a one-mile radius to seek compensation.
Landowners planning to sell their property must fill out an application identifying the land in question. They can elect to base the fair-market value of the property on the county's assessment or submit the name of an independent appraiser. Once the resource authority has verified that the appraiser is properly licensed and certified, the appraisal is completed and the authority reviews it and submits questions if necessary. Once both sides are satisfied, the land goes on the market at or above the appraised value. If the best offer falls below that price, the resource authority will pay the difference or purchase the property itself at the appraised value.
John Hubbard, director of the resource authority, says 24 properties have gone through the valuation program. The resource authority paid differentials ranging from $300 to $23,000 on eight.
Alexander applied for the program in September 1994 but waited until the following August to submit an appraisal that was dated shortly before he had filled out his application. Although he didn't adhere to the rules, the authority let it slide, but then Alexander failed to answer questions they submitted, and the process came to a halt.
Those questions included queries as to why the appraisal listed a major electrical transmission line with a 200-foot easement as a "typical public utility easement" and failed to acknowledge that the property is located in a flood zone.
In the meantime, Alexander has hired attorney Scott Gardner and tried to persuade resource authority officials to negotiate a price somewhere between the $299,000 figure and the county's assessment.
"If we're going to give it away with the landfill and the power line, we're going to sue them," he says.
Alexander will be host of one last Civil War-style hoorah on Memorial Day weekend. It's his way of bracing for his own modern-day battle.
"I put my heart and my soul and all my dollars in this," he says. "I shouldn't walk away from here broke."
LENGTH: Long : 133 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN. Lacy Alexander has been trying to sell hisby CNBhome and 47 acres for
a year and a half without success. color. Graphic: Map by staff.