Fulton park saved from foreclosure

A north Fulton neighborhood park has been spared from foreclosure.

Fulton County agreed Friday to pay off a private investor who bought tax liens erroneously issued against the land — wiping away a series of bureaucratic bungles by the county that threatened to close the park in the first place.

"Well, that's great," said Stephen Sherman, a supporter of Preservation Oaks Nature Preserve, a .8-acre tract off Jones Bridge Road set aside as community green space. "I guess (the county) got a lot of pressure from folks. I'm tickled to death about the whole thing being resolved."

Lichung Chu, a private investor from Marietta, will get $18,500 in the settlement. He was owed more than $20,000 for liens he bought at public auction in 2002 against the park.

His lawyer, Joseph Girardot of Atlanta, said the deal means Chu won't make anything on his investment. But, it also means he won't have to foreclose on the park. He bought the liens not knowing they were for a park. The auctioning off of liens has recently been found illegal by a local judge.

"I think it's fine," Girardot said. "Under the circumstances, this was a good resolution."

That the county had labeled a park as taxable is not as surprising in Fulton as it might be elsewhere. An audit last year found widespread problems with Fulton's assessors' office, including scores of errors in the list of tax-exempt properties. Fulton has agreed to spend $1.7 million to begin an overhaul of its property tax files.

How the park almost ended up in an investor's hands took county officials several days to unravel. The problem was reported in the AJC earlier this week.

The property has been owned for a decade by a nonprofit trust created to protect community green space.

Somehow, it never got listed as tax exempt in the county's files. The county might have realized that error, if it hadn't sent tax bills for a decade to the wrong address.

The Southeast Land Preservation Trust never got the bills and never knew they were adding up at about $500 a year. Notices of tax liens also went to the wrong address as well.

The trust only found out Chu had bought the liens when a neighbor spotted the foreclosure notice tacked to a small gazebo in the park.

The small tract off Jones Bridge Road sits at the entrance to the Oakbridge subdivision. The community green space was set aside a decade ago when developers won the right to develop Oakbridge.

The land, valued at $31,500, contains a stand of mature oak trees, a split-rail fence and a small gazebo. Local volunteers maintain it.

Trust members plan to resolve the matter permanently by applying for tax-exempt status.

"That's going to be high on our list for next week," said Dale Nesbit, a trust member. "There's no reason for this to continue."