Apr 19, 2006 - 02:07:33 CDT
Land for sale inside Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora is now listed with a new Realtor, in smaller parcels and for more money.The 218 privately owned acres are a priority purchase for the National Park Service. So far, it has had no luck buying the land from the owner.
Norbert Sickler, of Dickinson, turned down a recent offer said to be at $2,000 an acre or around $400,000 from an alliance of conservation groups and individuals who want to prevent the land from being developed.
He's also turned down two offers from the National Park Service for much less, a market value set by similar grazing property.
Norbert Sickler's son, Randy, a Dickinson attorney, said the family wants the land to be preserved for the national park. Offers to date have been too far apart from the value, he said.
The land has been listed and advertised for going on a year and its asking price has doubled in that time.
The land is as beautiful as any in the Badlands, minus the Little Missouri River country. It also is the only privately owned land in the park.
The first listing was for $352,000. Now, it's listed at $654,000 for slightly more acres than were first thought to belong to Sickler.
How valuable the land is depends somewhat on whether there's access to it.
The National Park Service says there is no access, other than by foot or horseback, and that North Dakota's section line law does not apply inside the park.
That question remains under review by park attorneys. They could, after considerable time already, make their determination within a month, said Dewayne Prince, region chief of land management for the National Park Service.
Sickler's land borders the park's boundary fence and is visible from Interstate 94 east of the Medora exit.
It's distinguishable from surrounding Badlands by yellow realty signs.
Sickler bought the land decades ago when it was still outside the park boundary. It got swallowed up when the park boundary moved south to parallel the then-new interstate highway.
The land is listed with Key Realty.
Agent Lowell Nester said Sickler also would sell it in six 40-acre tracts, each valued at approximately $140,000, or a total of $840,000.
Either way, that's more than the conservation offer Sickler rejected and far more than the park has ever offered the last two times it did so.
Nester said there's strong interest in the smaller parcels. He said access seems to be more important to some potential buyers than others.
"I've got quite a few appointments," he said. "There's a lot of interest in the property."
Randy Sickler said that once the family sells a 40-acre tract, there's no going back and the remaining land won't be as appealing to the park service.
While the family desires a melding of the land with the national park in some way, the sale listing is genuine and not intended to put pressure on the negotiations, he said.
"If a purchaser comes along, it will be sold," Sickler said.
Nester said the current asking price compares to Badlands property outside the park.
Keith Trego, director of the North Dakota Natural Resources Trust, said a loose coalition of individuals and groups got together to make the conservation offer to Sickler.
There's been no other activity since Sickler turned down the offer a couple of months ago, leaving the matter in a state of limbo, he said.
Trego declined to identify the individuals and organizations in the coalition, or to name the amount of their offer.
Nonprofit organizations are prohibited under state law from transferring land to federal agencies, like the national park.
Trego said other options to either hold the land for the park, or transfer it would have been explored had the offer been received favorably.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park Superintendent Valerie Naylor said the status of the Sickler land is very important to the agency. A conservation purchase could have been a solution, she said.
"I'm disappointed that the issue isn't resolved," Naylor said. "It's important that we take care of this to preserve the integrity of the park."
Prince said if there is access to the Sickler property, any new appraisal might have to reflect possible recreational or commercial use. A new appraisal would have to be done for a subsequent offer in any case, since the most recent appraisal has already expired, he said.
(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@;westriv.com.)
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