Owners of Corona Road Station, SMART in Dispute Over Property

Property owners of land that has been slated for the Corona Road SMART station say the rail agency has driven away potential buyers while not committing to purchase the 6.5- acre property on North McDowell and Corona.

Petaluma residents Larry and Robin Drew and Clinton and Patricia Gow have retained an attorney who says that SMART has acted unfairly toward the owners by not finalizing a deal with the agency despite years of talks.

“SMART has designated this as a train station that they were intending to acquire for several years, that’s no secret,” said Bob Oliker who is representing the owners. “They’ve had right of way agents come out, they’ve done EIRs (environmental impact reports).”

Whenever developers expressed an interest in purchasing the property, the city referred them to SMART, Oliker said. Meanwhile, about half the companies leasing the land have left, thinking the property would eventually become a train station.

“There’s such uncertainty over the property,” Oliker said. “SMART will neither buy it or let it be sold, so the property owners are being held hostage.”

Earlier this year, the property fell into foreclosure and was due to be sold at an auction in July. That’s when SMART stepped in and expressed an interest in purchasing the property. But property owners canceled the auction and began exploring other options.

The amount of loan and delinquent fees total $925,000, according to Jeff Mayne, the lender for the property owners. But the fair market value of the 6.5 acre site is worth around $4 million, said Mayne, who owns Excel Mortgage Solutions in Petaluma who is representing the property owners.

He said the property owners don't expect SMART to pay the full amount right away, but put down a deposit as a way of ensuring the property is looked after.

But SMART says that the dispute is essentially due to the owners wanting more money.

“The property owners are trying to get more for their property than what was up at the auction,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Valerie Brown and chair of the SMART Board of Directors. “The owners have canceled two auctions, after we’ve gone in with check in hand.”

The Corona Road station was deferred this April after SMART announced a $88 million budget shortfall caused by reduced sales tax revenues. The Atherton station in Novato was also deferred as were all stations north of Santa Rosa and south of San Rafael.

“Corona was always a lower priority, but when the property became available because of foreclosure, we got letters wanting us to do something about it,” Brown said. “We didn’t put foreclosure on it, foreclosure was put on it because payments weren’t made,” Brown said.

But Oliker said that SMART stepping in to purchase the property only after the price was significantly lowered because of foreclosure equated to playing dirty.

“It doesn’t seem fair that a public agency can hang around the edges and say we’re going to buy your property for fair market value and dissuade others from buying it and when the property owners are about to lose it in foreclosure for a fraction of the price, say ‘OK, now we’re ready,’” he said.

Oliker added that he was looking forward to sitting down with representatives of SMART and hammering out a deal that works for both parties.

“We’d like to meet with SMART, we’d like to cut a deal with them and we’d like this to become a train station,” he said.