Delays may put interchange off for another year

As a deadline approaches that would put the East Main Street Interstate 55 interchange construction off for another year, the negotiating parties continue to tug and pull at each other over property acquisition.

Since January, Jackson city officials have said an intergovernmental agreement was only a couple weeks away from becoming official.

More than three months later, there is still no deal.

The four public entities that have agreed to invest money into the proposed interchange -- the cities of Jackson and Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau County and Southeast Missouri State University -- were able to come to terms, but now a fifth player, developer Earl Norman, has tied up negotiations on how much property he would lose over the current design.

Norman did not return a telephone call seeking comment, but his business associate, Tim Goodman, said "We're trying to minimize land loss. We're trying to balance our civic and commercial interests."

Jackson Mayor Paul Sander said a new design submitted by the Missouri Department of Transportation has been offered that would give Norman more acreage. Goodman said Wednesday he is waiting to receive the proposal.

Goodman said MoDOT did not provide detailed plans until the beginning of the year. Norman owns two tracts of land near the proposed interchange. One of those tracts is 19 acres.

The drawing presented in January, Goodman said, showed that MoDOT would take 13 to 14 acres of the 19-acre tract for right-of-way.

Norman has asked MoDOT to look at ways to reduce the amount of right-of-way.

"We're waiting on a new map," Goodman said. "We're not in a fight with the city, we're just trying to determine what we're going to have left."

Cheryl Ball, the interim district engineer for MoDOT, said the state has provided 13 design options, some of them just rough sketches, to the property owners and has laid out best-case scenarios for the property owners to the city of Jackson. She declined to elaborate on what the least amount of right-of-way would be needed from Norman's property.

Sander said the options have been sent out to all interested parties, including Norman's attorney.

Construction on the interchange was supposed to begin in 2005 with a possible completion as early as 2006. However, negotiations stalled last year and pushed construction back to at least MoDOT's 2006-2007 fiscal year.

Because the negotiations sputtered, Jackson hesitated on extending Main Street, which was supposed to be completed by 2005.

Ball said she has not set a firm deadline for signing an intergovernmental agreement and completing right-of-way documents.

"I would say soon," she said. "I don't actually have a deadline, but this summer would be an absolute drop dead."

After the governmental agreement is reached, MoDOT would conduct public hearings so property owners wouldn't get the last and only word on the matter, Ball said.

One of the sticking points may be that Jackson has said that it will not pay for right-of-way on the interchange project. And if it pays for one tract, then other parties may want compensation as well.

Jackson officials assert that because the city is paying for the street extension and 34 percent of the local share of the interchange, it is increasing property values at no cost to the property owners. City officials say that should be compensation enough, considering other developers have to pay for their streets and other infrastructure.

When asked if Norman would be willing to hand over two-thirds of his tract without monetary compensation, Goodman wouldn't commit one way or the other.

"That's why we've asked for revised drawings," he said. "It's certainly not our desire to lose that much land."

Norman has another larger tract of land, roughly 40 acres, along the East Main Street extension just west of the proposed interchange.

Several years ago, Jackson city leaders negotiated terms in which MoDOT agreed to come up with half of the money for the interchange. Other parties used that promise as leverage against the city when they sat down to negotiate. Ball now estimates that construction will cost between $5.5 million and $6 million.

After several intense negotiating meetings, the parties informally agreed that Jackson would pay 34 percent of the local match while the other three public entities would pay 22 percent each.

Norman is one of two private property owners who have land around the interchange. Neither will have to pay anything for the project. The other property owner, Randy Reutzel, has agreed to donate his right-of-way, Sander said.

The project would be paid for through a transportation development district, meaning a special tax, either sales or property, would be placed upon the businesses that moved into the district. The taxes would be assessed and collected until the project is paid for.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635