Wright City selling empty field for $675K

Posted 5/17/22

The Wright City government has agreed to sell land adjacent to an old sewer lagoon to Public Water Supply District No. 2 of St. Charles County (PWSD 2) for a price of $675,000.

The land being sold …

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Wright City selling empty field for $675K

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The Wright City government has agreed to sell land adjacent to an old sewer lagoon to Public Water Supply District No. 2 of St. Charles County (PWSD 2) for a price of $675,000.

The land being sold is a 25 acre field, located about a half-mile southeast of the downtown area. The purchase price equates to $27,000 per acre.

Wright City aldermen voted on April 28 to approve sale of the property. The 25 acres being sold doesn’t currently have any use, but decades ago had been associated with the process of clarifying sewage water after it had been treated in the city lagoon, said City Administrator Jim Schuchmann.

“The city always had the idea that at some point in the future, we may want to develop that land, whether for industrial or some other purpose,” Schuchmann said. “So when the water district reached out and asked if the land was available, we said yeah.”

Wright City had previously sold its lagoon to PWSD 2 in 2018 as part of a $10.5 million deal to sell all the city’s water and sewer utilities. The water district has continued to operate the lagoon as part of the sewer network, but Schuchmann said water officials expressed a desire to buy the adjacent land in order to build a modern treatment facility.

“The reason they’re wanting to expand is because of the expansion in Wright City. We’re annexing more areas and more homes are coming,” Schuchmann commented. He added that the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has been pushing for updates or replacements of older lagoons like the one in Wright City. “So (this deal) is for two reasons — to comply with DNR, and to accommodate future growth.”

The land acquisition deal allows PWSD 2 to take half a year, or longer, to complete a series of due diligence assessments before completing its purchase of the property. Assessments will include environmental studies, land surveys, and permit acquisitions to ensure the water district will be able to develop the property without obstruction.

PWSD 2 is a public utility district, headquartered in O’Fallon, with a publicly elected board of directors. The district serves over 400 square miles of rural territory and communities in St. Charles County and Warren County.

Wright City Board of Aldermen, Public Water Supply District 2, PWSD

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