ASSESSMENT REVISIONS ARE FAIR, LOGICAL

The Cape Girardeau City Council took proper action in revising a policy regarding assessments on owners of property through which residential streets are built.

The new policy stipulates that the city assess property owners $25 per frontage foot for the cost of a 30-foot wide pavement with rock base. The city will pay all other associated costs, including land acquisition, engineering, inspection and legal fees. Under the original proposal, property owners would have been assessed $42 per frontage foot plus the cost of land acquisition, if the city had to buy the land instead of having it donated by the property owner.

The council's reversal of the original plan, which was included in the city's transportation sales tax approved by voters, came after property owners along a planned extension of Hopper Road between Mount Auburn and Kage roads protested. They said the special assessments would have posed a financial burden, and indeed they would have. One woman's assessment was estimated at $175,000, and family members said the property would not be fit for development once the road goes through.

Councilman Richard Eggimann expressed the feelings of most people who voted for the transportation sales tax when he said they assumed revenue from the tax would pick up most of the costs of the 20 transportation improvements that were promised, including the Hopper Road extension.

Property owners still will have the option of selling or donating to the city the land needed for new roads. That will give them the opportunity to determine whether it is financially beneficial to sell the land and pay the special assessments or donate it to the city. In most cases, donation of the land probably would be to their benefit.

The city plans to establish some guidelines to help both the city and property owners decide how best to proceed as it embarks on the transportation improvements. Without those guidelines, the city would have difficulty proceeding with the improvements under the new policy.

It is good that the discrepancies were caught before the city embarked upon construction of more new roads. The council deserves credit for listening to the people who saw the problem with the original policy and for correcting the problem.