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Wednesday February 22, 2012

Road assessments may drop

Submitted by Joni Berg on Fri, 06/17/2011 - 19:46
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SUZANNE ROOK, srook@northfieldnews.com

WHAT ELSE THEY DID
On Tuesday, the council also:
• Discussed possibilities for keeping the downtown Northfield Post Office open with Keith Covey, who chairs the Save Our Post Office task force. The council nixed one option, which would have the city spending anywhere from $1.3 million to $3 million for cluster mailboxes. In exchange, postal officials said they would agree to keeping the post office open for up to 10 years.
Council members said they will be open to considering any proposal from the SOPO group. A proposal could come before the council as early as Tuesday.
• Met with the Library Board, which updated it on potential outreach projects.
• Heard from Northfield resident Marcea Frazier, who asked it to consider instituting a 25-cent fee per plastic and paper bag in an effort to reduce solid waste. The council on Tuesday will discuss sending the proposal to the city's Environmental Quality Commission for its input.

Property owners living on one of the city's most traveled thoroughfares could soon get a smoother ride home for a less than the city initially predicted.

The City Council on Tuesday is expected to consider a proposal that would lower assessments for the planned repaving of a portion of Jefferson Road. Several councilors earlier this month expressed concerns that land owners living on main thoroughfares — called major collector streets — should get a break on assessments since their streets are so well traveled by the entire community. The city estimates that 5,000 cars travel Jefferson Road daily.

Public Works Director Katy Gehler, who said the assessment policy was chosen because it was seen as the most equitable overall, noted that it also gives the council authority to modify assessments when it finds “unusual or extraordinary circumstances.”

In this case, what's unusual is the lots' average road frontage. At more than 110 feet, the average Jefferson Road lot is 35 to 40 feet wider than the typical single family lot in Northfield.

Assessments are based the completed project's estimated benefit and are determined per linear foot and multiplied by the road frontage of each parcel. A licensed assessor calculates the estimated benefit of the improvement.

In this case, assessments average $4,800 for a single family lot, more than half what other Northfielders have paid for more comprehensive road projects that include new utility lines. But those property owners have lots about half the width of those on Jefferson Road.

The council also agreed to consider adding sidewalks to the west side of the roadway — from 1600 to 1912 Jefferson Road. The concrete walkways would add another $63,000 to the nearly $300,000 project. But those costs cannot be passed down property owners.

The council also decided to forego adding the construction of a paved trail along Hwy. 3 to the project. The trail could cost as much as $260,000 and could bog down the project, said Gehler. To complete the trail, the city would need to obtain some property, remove trees, rework a retaining wall, all which would take a significant chunk of time.

If approved, the road project would begin this fall.

— Suzanne Rook covers the city for the Northfield News. Reach her at 507-645-1113.