PAYING FOR PAVEMENT: CITY CONSIDERS NEW ROAD ASSESSMENT POLICY

When construction begins next summer on the Hopper Road extension from Mount Auburn to Kage roads, neighboring property owners will pick up a good chunk of the estimated $686,500 costs.

While the extension will cost an estimated $686,500, property owners will pay an estimated $350,000, according to the city's 1996 Capital Improvements Program plan.

The draft of the 1998 Capital Improvements Program says that if special assessments are levied, sales tax funds will pay for engineering, right of way and construction, and the assessment revenues will be credited to the Transportation Trust Fund.

Jay Hunze estimates his mother, Bernice, will pay $175,000 of the total special assessments planned to help offset construction costs for the Hopper Road extension under policies being considered by the Cape Girardeau City Council.

That's too much, Hunze says.

"I don't think that's fair," he said. "The road that's going through is going to be used by an awful lot of people, but the property owners who happen to live where it's going through have to pay a disproportionate share of the cost."

Hunze said the council needs to be aware of the impact of the special assessments before deciding a policy.

"If they have a policy at all, it should be one that says we won't do anything that will result in undue financial hardship on any individual or commercial entity," he said.

The $175,000 figure is Hunze's estimate, based on the proposed policy that assesses new residential street construction at $42 per linear foot plus the cost of land acquisition.

The $42 covers the cost of pavement and rock base for the 30-foot-wide street. The city would pick up the other associated costs, including engineering, inspection and legal expenses.

Property owners will only pay the $42 if they donate the land needed for building the road and the easements.

If the city has to buy the land, the cost will be figured into the special assessments.

The estimated assessment for Bernice Hunze's property is less than 25 percent of what the city offered her for the land needed to build the road -- about 2,200 linear feet.

"Unless I misread it, that says, if you don't give us your land, we're going to make you pay for the whole thing," Hunze said.

Hunze's mother, who is 79, lives on a fixed income and can't afford to pay the assessment unless she sells her land -- about 20 undeveloped acres used as farmland.

Hunze wants to know why the city isn't using the half-cent transportation sales tax voters approved in 1995 to pay for the roads instead of making property owners pay for roads.

City officials say the sales tax was never intended to pay the entire cost of new road construction and point out property owners have always been assessed road construction costs -- sometimes higher than what Bernice Hunze could end up paying.

City staff members have come up with policies for five different types of street construction: widening residential streets, widening residential or commercial streets, widening commercial streets, new residential street construction and new commercial street construction.

The council might discuss the policy further at tonight's meeting.

Mark Lester, city engineer, said the city currently uses one policy to cover all costs.

When the sales tax revenues came available, he said, the city's staff decided it was time to develop new policies because a sizable chunk of the tax revenue is slated for street maintenance, not road construction.

"In the past, it was a pay-as-you-go deal," Lester said. "The owners abutting the street had paid for the entire street, usually. With trust fund money coming in, the city is looking at a way to share the burden with the property owners."

"So basically, we're not assessing the entire cost of the street" with the new policies, he said.

Bernice Hunze's situation isn't unusual, said Mayor Al Spradling III.

When Lexington Avenue was extended, a property owner faced a similar assessment.

The property was sold "at a healthy profit," Spradling said, and the Lexington Acres Subdivision arose.

"These issues are constantly out there," Spradling said. "I don't know how we can avoid them, frankly, other than not build the road. I don't think that's the plan. We can't progress if we just avoid property where blocks of real estate may impose on one person a little more burden than the others. Unfortunately, that's the only way we can do it."

Spradling and Lester pointed out that state law mandates that all property owners be assessed by the same formula. Exceptions can't be made for people who own very large tracts, like Bernice Hunze, they said.

"It's totally unfair to people to get a free new road under the transportation policy without being assessed," Spradling said. "That's why we're trying to come up with the new policy for all different road types."

Spradling said it is too soon to know how much of the costs of new roads property owners will wind up paying.

"That policy hasn't been finalized," he said.

He said the trust fund was mainly intended to help maintain and improve roads like Perryville, Bloomfield and Broadway, and to pay ongoing maintenance costs like sidewalks, curb and gutters.

Property owners get the special assessments after the new road is completed, and the assessments are based on actual costs, Lester said.

"We're making everybody pay for everybody's land," he said.

If property owners are assessed the cost of the city's purchase of their own land, Lester said, "it's still a legitimate cost that is borne by somebody."

If a property owner can't afford the assessment and meets state guidelines, the assessment can be waived for that individual, Lester said.

But if the property is sold before the assessment period is up, the property owner has to pay a portion of the assessment.

Proposed special assessment policies:

New residential street construction (Hopper Road)

Property owners will be assessed the cost of a 30-foot-wide pavement with rock base at $42 per frontage foot, plus the cost of land acquisition if right of way and easements are not donated. The city will pay engineering, inspection and legal costs.

New commercial street construction (Siemers Drive)

Property owners will be assessed the cost of a 40-foot-wide pavement and rock base at $56 per frontage foot and any land acquisition costs. If property owners want the street wider, they will be assessed the additional costs.

Residential street widening (Perryville Road, Kage Road)

Property owners will be assessed the cost of the widening, including engineering, inspection and legal costs at $35 per frontage foot, plus the cost of right of way or easements purchased.

Residential or commercial street widening (Broadway)

Property owners will be assessed the cost of widening, including engineering, inspection and legal costs, plus association stormwater work at $46 per frontage foot, and the cost of land acquisition. If all right of way and easements are donated, no tax bill will be assessed.

Commercial street widening (Independence, Pacific to Sprigg)

Property owners will be assessed the full cost of the project at $67 per frontage foot plus the cost of land acquisition.