The City Council is pressing the owners of some prime South Corvallis [Colorado] industrial land to speed up efforts to get the property ready for development, but it’s not clear how much leverage the city has to work with.

The 662-acre parcel, known as the Cascade View Industrial Properties, is on the west side of Highway 99W between Goodnight Avenue and the Corvallis Municipal Airport, and it has the potential to give the local economy a significant lift. As one of the biggest chunks of bare industrial ground in the state, it could support the kind of large-scale development that expands the property tax base and generates lots of family-wage jobs.

The four farm families who own the land have been working for years to get the property positioned for development, hoping to cash in when the land is sold. To help move the process along, local officials asked for federal money to help with street extensions and other infrastructure improvements.

U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, who represents Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, secured an $800,000 “earmark” in federal funds, and the city pledged to kick in another $150,000. An “earmark” is a congressional appropriation that is tied to a specific purpose, sometimes with a timeline attached.

For their part, the property owners agreed to pay for a study to determine where wetlands are on the property and to establish a selling price for the land. The federal and city funds would be released when that was done.

A memorandum of understanding signed in July 2005 called for the wetlands delineation to be completed by spring 2006, with the sales price to follow. But the wetlands delineation still is not finished, and city officials have expressed dissatisfaction with provisional price information provided by the owners.

At Monday’s City Council meeting, Ward 9 Councilor Hal Brauner recommended that the council forward the matter to its urban services committee for review. Although he stopped short of suggesting that the city start to look for new ways to spend the $800,000, he said even the most basic information supplied in Cascade View’s report is suspect since the estimated land values do not take into account any wetland delineation.

“Given where we are right now, I’m losing my patience,” Brauner said.

City Manager Jon Nelson echoed that view Tuesday.

“The ($800,000) earmark is getting old, and we want to use it in a timely fashion,” Nelson told the Gazette-Times.

Nelson said the city was checking with DeFazio’s office about the possibility of using the money for a different project, such as the city-owned Airport Industrial Park.

According to an aide in DeFazio’s Washington office, however, that may be easier said than done.

“The earmark for that project does not expire, but they have to use it for that project,” said Molly Simmons. “If they wanted to use it for a different project, they would have to get a technical amendment, which is currently not possible because the bill is closed.”

In a letter to the council dated March 31, the landowners — Lynn Nordhausen, Don Herbert, Larry Venell and Elwell Krause — said the wetland delineation, being conducted by CH2M Hill, was “inconclusive” and needed further work.

“We, the property owners, are disappointed by this delay, as is possibly the City of Corvallis,” the letter said.

Jay Lorenz of CH2M Hill said he couldn’t predict when the final report might be ready, adding that the site is “atypical” and that interpreting the hydrology is difficult.

Venell said the owners are doing their best to get the report finished and thinks the city should be patient.

“In our mind, we’re doing our part to move things forward,” he said.

But Nelson countered that the city wants some tangible assurance that the property owners are serious about making their land available for development.

“The last thing government wants to do is put a million dollars into a property that’s just going sit there and remind people every time they drive by that here was a case of government funding for a project that didn’t go anywhere,” Nelson said.