Upset that the Manchester Housing and Redevelopment Authority has not readied Hackett Hill for development in the nearly five years it has had to do so, Mayor Frank Guinta wants the city to boot the authority and do the work itself.

Some history first: In March of 1999, Manchester agreed to buy 830 acres on Hackett Hill from the University of New Hampshire for $7.2 million. Five and a half years later, on Dec. 7, 2004, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen finally approved a master plan for Hackett Hill. What makes Guinta think the city will move any faster than the MHRA?

Click for Editorials & Op-Eds

In that December 2004 meeting, on the recommendation of the MHRA, aldermen voted to sell French Hall, the main building in what was to be the new business park, to the low bidder. That's right, the low bidder. The MHRA said Brooks Properties would bring in more tax revenue than catalog company Herrington Corp. would. We'll never know what might have happened. But we do know that this dual aldermanic/MHRA scheme left taxpayers holding a "business park" where no more businesses want to park.

Mayor Guinta is right to be frustrated with the pace of Hackett Hill's development. But his suggested remedy is misguided. The solution isn't city management. It's private management. The city never should've become involved in this speculative venture in the first place.

Mayor-elect Ted Gatsas has the right idea. Dump it. The city is better off cutting its losses than sinking any more time and money into a development scheme no private developer will touch. Release the property and let the market, not city planners, determine its best use.

Alas, that could take a while. Last year, aldermen gave developers two months to bid on the so-called "Northwest Business Park." There were no bids. The city might have to wait out the recession before a bidder comes along. But that beats squandering any more money on the pipe dreams of previous aldermanic boards and the MHRA.