County to delay street assessment hearing again
By Steve Herring
Published in News on April 17, 2016 1:45 AM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday morning will reconvene a public hearing on street assessments for Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions.
But instead of proceeding, the board will be asked to recess the hearing for a second time.
The hearing was opened on March 1 only to be recessed until Tuesday because of the unexpected high cost of street repairs in the two subdivisions.
Rather than proceed at the March 1 meeting with the state Department of Transportation estimate, commissioners agreed recess the hearing and to hire a state-approved engineering firm to take a second look at the project.
A firm will not have been hired by Tuesday's hearing that will start at 9:30 a.m. in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex.
The meeting will get under way at 8 a.m. followed by the formal session at 9 a.m.
County Manager George Wood is recommending commissioners reconvene the hearing, explain the delay, and then recess the hearing until such time that the county has the engineer's estimate.
State law allows counties to establish special districts in which an assessment can be levied against property owners to pay for bringing streets up to DOT standards in order to have them folded into the state's highway maintenance system.
County policy requires that property owners petition the county for the repairs.
To be valid, the petitions must be signed by at least 75 percent of the property owners representing 75 percent of the street frontage in a subdivision.
Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions are the first to complete the process.
State law only requires one public hearing, but the county policy calls for a second public hearing once the estimated costs have been determined.
"When we reached that stage, the NCDOT's engineering estimate was a little over $3 million," Wood said in a memo to commissioners. "Including some advertising costs increased it a little more. Divided by 121 lots, that would have made the per-lot assessment $24,861.42."
That prompted the board to recess the hearing instead of closing it to allow for time to look for less-expensive options.
"In addition, the decision was made to hire an engineering firm, authorized to do work for the NCDOT, to study the matter, and determine what specific repairs would need to be made, and their estimated costs," Wood said in the memo. "By state statute, the NCDOT would then need to review his plans and estimates and determine if they agree with them. If so, we can then reconvene the second public hearing with a revised cost estimate.
"At that point, the property owners would have been notified by mail of the new proposed assessment. They can then come to the public hearing and either continue to have their names on the petition, or remove them. They can also do that in writing to the county clerk prior to the public hearing."
At that point, the county would determine if the 75 percent thresholds continue to be met, making it a valid petition.
If the remaining signatures fall below either 75 percent threshold, then the petition would no longer be valid, and the project would be discontinued, Wood said.
But if both 75 percent thresholds are met, and the petition would remain valid, then commissioners could vote to make the assessments, and authorize the project to be bid out and a contract for construction awarded.
Property owners can pay the assessment in a lump sum or spread the payments out over a 10-year period.
"We will shortly be in a position to hire an engineer for this project," Wood said in the memo. "You passed a resolution at the last meeting allowing us an exemption from the Mini-Brooks Act, so that we did not have to advertise and receive formal proposals from multiple firms, then conduct interviews, select one on qualifications but not price, then negotiate a fee with that firm. This is very time consuming.
"We have already contacted three firms for proposals, and should have their proposals shortly. At that point you have authorized me to select one and negotiate a contract. Then, they would do the engineering work to NCDOT's satisfaction, and give us a cost estimate. At that point, we could reconvene this second public hearing again."