During the Progress & Development committee report by Councilman DeVito at February 10th's Council Meeting, he reported that Manville is in negotiations with Rustic Mall LLC.

"The Rustic Mall negotiations are continuing. Both the Borough of Manville and Rustic Mall LLC have each engaged a licensed commercial appraiser to come up with a professional appraised valuation of the site. So we expect to be mutually exchanging our respected appraisals within the next few weeks. To see if we can come together on an agreed value for a sale price for the Borough to acquire the property." Councilman DeVito stated in his report.

It does appear that Manville wants to move forward in purchasing this land. As covered in our prior reporting regarding Rustic Mall, Manville was awarded a $5 million "Resilient Communities Grant" last year, which includes funds for property acquisition.

Manville also appears to be working on submitting a new "Smart Moves" grant application, which that too, also includes funding that can be used toward acquisition of property.

The question becomes how will the appraisals look? Will the appraisals simply be on the land value, or will the appraisal be the value of the property if it were properly developed? If the latter, the price will be very high, especially in today's real estate market.

From our initial reporting last year, Manville was looking to spend approximately $4 million to acquire the land. $2.75 million would come from the Resilient Communities Grant, and $1.25 million would come from the Smart Moves Grant. It is unknown at this time that *if* Manville was approved for the new Smart Moves grant, how much would be allocated to property acquisition under this new grant application.

Assuming the Borough does purchase the land, more questions arise. The public should have a say in how the property is developed.

In reviewing the last Smart Moves grant, one of the reasons it was not approved was because no public forum, which provides residents an opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions, was held. If the grant is being reapplied for, a public forum must be held as part of the application process. To date, no meeting has been scheduled. The Borough should not proceed without residents having an opportunity to share their concerns and feedback.

The further question becomes will Manville truly move forward in moving almost all municipal services to Rustic Mall (Municipal Building, Police Station, OEM, DPW, etc.) to the site, as in the original drawings provided in early 2024, with only a small amount of space devoted to housing? Or will the plan turn into something completely different?

This would be a major project for the Borough. The public should be involved by providing their input. This would be the development of the final, large, flood-free, usable piece of property within the Borough. As the last remaining taxable property, we must make sure it is developed in a way to provide Manville with the tax revenue it needs.