Street paving for two subdivisions endangered
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 21, 2016 1:46 PM
Nearly a year of effort by residents of Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions to have their streets repaired and taken over by the state is less than a month away from falling apart.
For other subdivisions waiting their turn, it could mean a chance to move up in the priority ratings for street repairs.
Residents in the two subdivisions were the first to present a valid petition to Wayne County commissioners calling on them to create a special service district for the street repairs.
Commissioners can have the work done and then pay for it by levying a special assessment against property owners in the subdivision.
However, during a Tuesday morning public hearing on the project. County Manager George Wood said enough people have withdrawn their names from the petition to render it invalid. Cost appears to be the reason residents are taking their names off the petition.
The board had been set to act following the public hearing to establish the assessment on property in the subdivisions to pay for the repairs. But commissioners could not do so because state law requires a valid petition in order to proceed. Instead, commissioners agreed to give the residents until the board's Aug. 16 meeting to secure the number of needed signatures.
Residents who want to sign the petition will have to do so at the county manager's office on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse.
The delay also allows time for people to remove their name by contacting Wood's office.
The state law allowing the board to create the special district requires that the petition be signed by 75 percent of the property owners representing 75 percent of the street frontage in a subdivision.
Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions were the first to complete the process.
Based on 121 lots in the two subdivisions, owners of 91 lots would have to sign the petition.
Currently there are 83, Wood said. Also, the 83 does not represent the 75 percent road frontage threshold, he said.
The project was delayed by higher-than-expected project cost of more than $3 million as estimated by the DOT.
Commissioners hired an outside engineer to come up a cost estimate.
The engineer's estimated cost is $2,199,456.
Based on 121 lots, each lot would be assessed approximately $18,177.32. The final assessment will be determined after the actual bids are received and the work is completed.
Property owners would be allowed to pay the assessment over a 10-year period at a 5 percent annual interest rate.
It can also be paid in a lump sum.
The work would bring the streets and drainage in the two subdivisions up to a level acceptable to the state Department of Transportation so the streets can become a part of the state Secondary Highway System for ownership and maintenance.
Steve Cole and Ray Urban, who live in the area under consideration, thanked commissioners and Wood for their work on the nearly one-year-old project.
"We spent the last 10 years playing the blame game about our situation, and I feel there is plenty of blame to go around," Cole said. "We can blame the subdivision developer for not building sturdier roads, for not continuing to maintain them.
"We can blame North Carolina DOT for not requiring sturdier roads or being too restrictive about the requirements for accepting roads. We can blame the home builders and property owners for installing the encroachments in the DOT right of way that have led to some of the obstacles to DOT accepting the roads."
The property owners also need to blame themselves for not being able to agree on a solution or to be willing to act on what is believed to be the best solution, he said.
Some demand other solutions, but are unwilling to step up and do the work, or help make any other solution occur, Cole said.
Others think the responsibility for the roads ends at their property line, he said.
Cole said he knows some residents think the cost is too high. But to continue on the same course followed over the past 10 years is not going to get anything done.
"If nothing is done, we will be driving on dirt roads," he said.
If the petition fails, it is possible a petition for just Canterbury Village or North Creek will be tried next, Urban said.