Suit reveals appraised value of land near NGIC

The U.S. Department of the Army Corps of Engineers has been forced to reveal its appraisal figure of the land it bought for the Joint-Use Intelligence Analysis Facility at the National Ground Intelligence Center.

The $9.7 million figure became public as part of a compromise settlement filed earlier this month between the Army Corps and writer Jayson Whitehead in Charlottesville federal court.

Whitehead filed the suit July 2 against the government agency to discover the figure, which was not public when the United States bought the 46.7-acre Albemarle County plot for $7 million from developer Wendell Wood in 2006.

The agency had denied Whitehead’s records request in April 2007, claiming that the “release of information could cause financial harm by affecting the owner’s ability to negotiate in the future,” the complaint said.

Whitehead challenged the denial of records in May 2007, according to the complaint, but he said he never received a response on his appeal.

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors agreed to move a 30-acre parcel of Wood’s surrounding property from the rural area to the development area so that Wood would sell the other tract of land for the Congress-approved $7 million. Wood said the board’s vote is supposed to be part of the county’s master plan, which has not officially occurred. The developer said last week that he was unaware of what the government’s appraisal of his land was until told by a reporter, but the figure cements his belief that he sold the land for less than the government valued it.

“I wouldn’t have sold it to anyone else at that price,” Wood said. “If that goes well, I’m going to do well.”

Wood owns 1,000 acres surrounding the NGIC property off U.S. 29 in northern Albemarle County, which he believes will bring good jobs to the Charlottesville area and spur growth of other businesses.

Some county supervisors said at the time of their decision to shift Wood’s land into the growth area that they believed the action was needed to ensure that NGIC would keep its operations in Albemarle.

Under the settlement in federal court, Whitehead, a contributing writer to Cville Weekly at the time of the original suit, also is scheduled to receive $4,200 to cover attorney costs. He also agrees that the Army won’t be required to disclose more records about the FOI request, and that Whitehead can’t make any additional FOI requests for records relating to his original FOI request.