County to proceed with street repairs
By Steve Herring
Published in News on November 22, 2015 3:05 AM
Petitions asking the county to levy special assessments to repair subdivision streets will be allowed to proceed.
Residents from several subdivisions have appealed to Wayne County commissioners in recent months for help in bringing their deteriorating streets up to state standards so that the state would take them into its road maintenance system.
Commissioners had been discussing using a state law that would allow the county to make the repairs and to then assess property owners, but then last month voted 6-1 to delay any action until the state Department of Transportation completes a statewide assessment next year of subdivision streets and repair costs.
But Tuesday's vote allows the process to continue.
Under the law the petition must be signed by at least 75 percent of the owners of the property to be assessed and who must represent at least 75 percent of all the lineal feet of frontage of the lands abutting on the street or portion to be improved.
Commissioner Joe Daughtery, who made the motion to halt the process, Tuesday also made the motion to approve the policy clearing the way for the process to start up again.
"Will the citizens be told upfront that once the assessments are made that three or four years from now they will not be able to come back and ask for forgiveness because that is a debt incurred against their property, and it won't be the responsibility of the county to make (the payment)," Commissioner John Bell said. "All we will be doing is providing funds up front."
County Manager George Wood said they would be told that and more during a public hearing.
"When you levy the assessment, you are levying taxes on that property," Wood said. "I should point out that under the statute they have the choice to either pay it in a lump sum or spread it over up to 10 years.
"So they will have a choice of prepaying it without interest or they can pay it with interest over that 10-year period."
The policy was hammered out by a working group of Daughtery and Commissioners Wayne Aycock and Joe Gurley.
Aycock, who is board chairman, said the policy deals with both concerns that led to the vote to delay -- limiting the financial impact on the county and determining the order in which projects are approved.
The policy limits the issuance of any debt for such projects to not more than $2.5 million in the first two-year cycle.
The policy also sets forth guidelines that commissioners approve projects in the order that the petitions are declared valid and all public hearings have been conducted.
Mayo asked for clarification on wording in the policy that said the petition must be returned to the county Planning Department with the necessary signatures within six months after it is issued to the petitioners by the Planning Department.
"There are subdivisions in Wayne County that have up to 300 homes," Mayo said. "The question has been asked that six months may not be enough time because don't forget these people doing the petition, they are having to contact homeowners that rent their homes, military families that are deployed plus any foreclosures. They are having to deal with those.
"In that sentence there I would like to make an amendment that a subdivision have the option to come to the board of commissioners and ask for a 90-day extension for a total of nine months from the day of issuance. That will give these large subdivisions more time, if necessary, to be able to get their petitions together."
Consideration of such extensions would be on an individual basis, Mayo said.
Daughtery said he would incorporate Mayo's suggestion into his motion.
Commissioners will hold two public hearings on each project.
The first will be on the petition and the second will be held once all the assessment costs are calculated and the pre-assessment roll generated. Property owners can also use that second hearing to either join or withdraw their names from the petition.
After the second public hearing, commissioners may approve or reject project requests and assessment costs.
No project may start unless it has been approved by the DOT which must also agree to accept the project street(s) into the secondary highway system for ownership and maintenance once the project has been completed.
Mayo also had a question about the second public hearing in the process.
"If we go through the second hearing and the 75 percent is not maintained, my question is who pays for the engineering fees because the engineering fees and assessments will be known at this time" Mayo said.
County Attorney Borden Parker said the law does not allow the county to impose the assessment if the petition does not meet both 75 percent requirements.
"So the county will be paying that," he said. "The only way you can keep the county from paying it is to have the people getting up the petition pay that money in advance to you. That might be discouraging to some people who might be trying to get their roads paved."
If the percentage is maintained then the engineering fees will be added into the assessment, Wood said.