Free Land For Fields, But Who Or What...

[BurySoccer]

We have a generous land owner who would like to donate approximately 40 acres for soccer fields. This is a small town (4000), but a big soccer community. We've had as much as 1000 kids in the rec program and we have a good travel club, both or which will use this land. If the soccer program were to go awry (god forbid) the owner would like the land to be used by the city govt. for purhaps a pubic park. Trouble is we don't know who or what organization he should give the land to that would serve these purposes. We don't have a lot of money for legal costs. The soccer travel club has not-for-profit status. We're in Northern Indiana and we want to avoid paying the property tax if possible. Anybody been through a similar situation or know of a town that has?

I wasn't sure where to put this thread. Feel free to move it where more appropriate.

[Twenty26Six]

I don't know, but we'll keep this thread here until we find a better place to put it. Who knows, maybe someone will have some advice. :)

[cleansheetbsc]

Nice. Wish we had a sugar daddy like that.

As a Not For Profit, you should be able to acquire the land tax exempt (not sure about how your property taxes work in Indiana-in NY you would be exempt).

Do you have an attorney on your board or club member who can do this work pro-bono? You need to do surveying, wetlands, SEQR? Could run low 5 figures to get a project like that off the ground - before a shovel hits the ground.

This would seem like something that the owner should do in the normal course of his estate planning, so most of the work should already be done

[BurySoccer]

No Lawyers close by that can help us.

The travel club has been established on 11 acres of this land for about 10 years. We,ve leased it for $1 a year. Terms could have gone for up to 20 years. I hear we paid the entire lease up front ($20);0) The owner wants the tax break now by giving it away to a non-profit. This 11 acres is the corner of the parcel. The whole 40 acres was zoned as recreational or whatever it is called from the conception of the travel club. So were good to go with the state, county etc. He just needs some organization to be resposible for it. The city govt. dosn't want it. They're cutting maintenance activiities out nearly every month to keep a float. The soccer community is self sufficent and really dosn't want anybody's hand in it but what happens if it goes belly up?

[DerbyRam54]

If the soccer program were to go awry (god forbid) the owner would like the land to be used by the city govt. for purhaps a pubic park.
Northern Indiana must be a lot more progressive than I'd given them credit for, Connecticut would never permit that kind of park.
Best of luck sorting that out. Where I live, we are desperately short of that kind of space for fields. Two full sized fields in a town of 29,000 people, plus if we grovel enough we might get to use the HS field for U19 boys.