Council members have several options before them, said Melissa Dodd, Bellbrook city manager. Members can table the idea for further discussion or reject it.
If members decide to endorse the idea and go forward, however, the city must either open the land in question to public bid to other possible, higher bidders — or it must create a community improvement corporation to act on the transaction, Dodd said.
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Dodd does not expect immediate action.
Steve Kircher is a retired emergency-room physician who with two of his brothers has formed a limited liability company with the goal of building a snow-tubing park on a nearly 100-acre property — a former well field on the west side of South Main Street — that his family has owned for more than 40 years.
Kircher first approached Bellbrook City Council with the idea in June last year.
The 20-acre operation includes 16 acres owned by Bellbrook, Dodd said. “The real root of the issue is: He needs 16 acres,” she said.
Kircher Tuesday said he would prefer to buy the 16 acres “to make it easier for the city.”
“They have a busy slate for the year and this would release them of the added responsibility of being a landlord,” Kircher said. “Either way it would be a welcome addition to Magnetic Springs Ranch and Bellbrook Mountain.”
Kircher has said he needs the space for a parking lot and access off Waynesville Road (South Main Street in Bellbrook).
The business would be near what once was Sugar Creek Ski Hills, an attraction that faded away in the late 1980s.
The work session will take place at council chambers, 15 E. Franklin St.
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