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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend June 22, 2005 Developer defends stance after Talent school deal stalled By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune One of the developers who owns land that the Phoenix-Talent School District wants for a school said he and his business partner tried to make the sale work and shouldn’t be blamed for the deal stalling. The school district filed a specific performance lawsuit Monday in an attempt to force property owners and developers Charlie Hamilton and Michael Thirkill to fulfill a $1.5 million sale contract on a 17-acre parcel on Coal Mine Road in southeast Medford. The district claimed that just days before the sale was to close in April, Hamilton and Thirkill wanted out of the deal because they couldn’t get a lot-line adjustment. The adjustment was needed so the district could buy one appropriately sized lot from a cluster of lots the developers owned. "This deal could not close through no fault of ours, and it is not reasonable to expect us to hold the property in limbo while the complexities and vagaries of state and county land-use regulations are teased and massaged," Thirkill wrote in an e-mail to the Mail Tribune. A county planning file notes that the adjustment was denied because no records showed when three of the four lots Hamilton and Thirkill and their company, Suncrest Homes LLC, own along Coal Mine Road were legally created. Advertisement The planner suggested several ways to consolidate the lots to carve out the land the school wants to buy and meet planning department requirements. Thirkill said the district first made an offer on the land in July and a price of $90,000 an acre was agreed upon in October. The sale contract, which was set to close Feb. 22, included time for due diligence by the school district and for the sellers to adjust the lot lines, he said. In late December, the district completed its due diligence inspection and the developers contacted a planning agent to prepare the application for the lot-line change, Thirkill said. He said that when it became apparent that the change couldn’t be done by Feb. 22, the developers agreed to extend the contract deadline by 60 days. County planning records show the district filed the application for the lot-line change Feb. 24. The filing was the sellers’ obligation in the sale contract, but to move the deal forward, the district took that step, school board Chairman Craig Prewitt said. The county planner reviewing the file sent a letter about the lot-line problems just days before the new closing date in April. Thirkill said he and Hamilton decided they couldn’t grant another extension. "No contract can be expected to live in perpetuity if conditions of the contract cannot be satisfied within the stipulated time frame and obstacles not envisioned under the original contract cause delays and setbacks," Thirkill wrote. Thirkill said he and Hamilton will determine how to respond to the suit next month when Hamilton returns from traveling abroad. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Ztech Media Hosting Sports Equipment Online Casino Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation Online Pharmacy Online Casino Reviews Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Rogue Valley Travel Discount Hotel Reservations Southern Oregon Loans Online Casino News Casino Gambling Sites Budget Website Templates Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Advertisement s