Residents lobby for street repairs
By Steve Herring
Published in News on March 3, 2016 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/STEVE HERRING
Steve Cole was one of several to speak during Tuesday morning's public hearing before Wayne County commissioners in support of a petition to improve streets in the Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions.
It was standing room only Tuesday morning for Wayne County residents lobbying the county to repair their subdivision streets, but only six spoke during a public hearing on the proposal.
Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions residents have petitioned the county to bring their streets up to standards acceptable to the state Department of Transportation so they can be taken into the state's secondary highway system.
State law allows counties to do so and then levy an assessment on the property to pay for all costs involved with such a project.
The DOT has estimated it will cost $3 million for the proposed project area that includes 123 residential lots fronting on the subdivision streets of East April Lane, Abbey Place, Adler Lane, Chancery Drive, Coventry Drive, Helms Court, Helms Drive, Hyde Park Drive, Lane Tree Drive and Londonderry Drive.
Property owners in those two developments would have to pay $24,861.42 each.
Tuesday's hearing not required by state law, but is part of county policy so people can know the cost before proceeding, County Manager George Wood said.
For the most part the speakers thanked Wayne County commissioners and encouraged them to continue with the project. Still others urged residents to give the board time to attempt to work out a solution to the high cost.
Several blamed the developer for the bad streets. They did not identify the developer, but said other subdivision he had developed had the same problems.
At least 75 percent of the property owners, representing 75 percent of the road frontage, have to sign the petition in order for the county to act on it.
If a project proceeds, property owners can pay the full assessment within 30 days after the day commissioners approve the notice of confirmation of the assessment roll.
That has not yet been done.
A second option is that any portion of an assessment not paid within the 30-day period must be paid in 10 equal annual installments.
For Canterbury Village and North Creek residents, the installment would be $2,485 annually plus interest of 5 percent per year on any outstanding balance.
"As you recall we established a policy that we would have three public hearings on these street assessments," Wood said. "The second one is to get public comment after we have gotten an estimate of the cost so people can the come in and tell us whether they want to continue to be on the petition or not."
However, in light of the very high cost, Wood said no decision would be made following the hearing that instead was recessed until the board's April 19 session.
That would be the deadline to add or remove a name, Wood said.
So far four people have asked to be removed from the list. But if the project were to proceed all property owners, even those not on the petition, would be assessed for the cost.
"The reason for this recess is to give us time to look at what options we may have on this," Wood said.
"We are exploring every avenue. One of the questions that has been asked is can we do less than what is required by DOT to bring these roads up to standards?
"The statute that we have been using is the only one that the county attorney and I are aware of that allows special assessments for North Carolina for counties. The statute says that we can only special assess for the purpose of bringing these roads up to DOT standards. So if we want to do less than that, it does not appear we can use special assessments for that purpose."
The county still intends to bid the project out in order to obtain "firm numbers," Wood said.
That is another reason for the delay, to get the bids back prior to the April 19 session, he said. If needed, the board could recess the hearing a second time, Wood said.
Several people have questioned the DOT estimates, he said.
There was a huge disappointment with the "outrageous" cost estimate, Joe Haas of Mills Court said.
"It is obvious if that is their amount, they don't really want to partner with us," he said.
Haas said he has documents that show that the streets met DOT standards when they were built.
"We do have copies of the subdivision plat that is certified to the county that was signed with an agreement with the county and developer on those subdivision plats," he said.
"They were also certified by the Planning Department of the county, the Health Department and register with the county deeds.
"So the county is somewhat of a partner with us, if you will, in agreeing to these certifications. But the elephant in the room is the second part of that certification and that is the county signed an agreement that also had a maintenance piece to it. So the question is when does the county decide that it is going to enforce what it agrees to through these certifications?"
Haas said that seems to indicate a partnership for the county to enforce the maintenance of the roads.
"I believe we as taxpayers have to look to you for enforcement," Haas said. "But we would respectfully ask that you give us answer as to why the maintenance piece of what you agreed to was not carried out."
Steve Cole of Helms Court said he was pleading with property owners to give commissioners time to look into possible options.
"Stick with the petition and keep your names on it," he said. "I hope you guys can come up with something that everybody can live with."
David Whitten of the Lane Tree subdivision said he and others are "diligently working" to get their petition ready.
The $3 million estimate makes the job more difficult, he said.
"But we will be seeing you shortly," Whitten said.