A Neighborhood Improvement District is being discussed for Marina Road at the Osage River.
Neighborhood improvement districts allow neighborhoods not up to county code to be fixed so they can be accepted into the county road system. This work is above and beyond what the county normally would do on projects not in the road system, and the landowners pay for the work.
During Tuesday's Cole County Commission meeting, Public Works Director Eric Landwehr said the NID process is "extremely involved." One of the last NIDs completed was the Park View Meadows subdivision in the St. Martins area, which included more than 100 properties off Route T. Improvements to streets, curbs, driveway entrances and drainage were made at a cost of nearly $645,000. The Commission approved the NID in November 2015 and it was finally completed in August 2017.
"To draft up the petition for the property owners to vote on requires an attorney to get that paperwork together," Landwehr said. "Currently, the commission pays for the lawyer to do this, not the people wanting to do the NID."
Landwehr said they are looking at a change to the NID policy that would call for residents to pay for a lawyer to draw up the documents. If the NID is approved, those fees get added. The concern is what happens if the NID doesn't get passed and the cost to the county in those circumstances.
Landwehr said there are 24 property owners in the potential NID for Marina Road. It would require a two-thirds majority of those owners to get NID approved.
"It could also be set up by road frontage or how many lots you own," Landwehr said.
Eastern District Commissioner Jeff Hoelscher has met some of the parties involved and said they have yet to come to a consensus.
He said they are trying to give residents more guidance on what they must do to come to the commission.
"I don't know if we want to be advocating to take on more roads - we probably don't - but if people want to do that, we have been supportive of working through the process if they want to make it happen," Landwehr said.
Landwehr added Marina Road is a chip seal road, which is a pavement surface treatment that combines one or more layers of asphalt with one or more layers of fine aggregate.
He estimated the work that would be covered in the NID would cost around $600,000.
"There is still a potential problem if after the NID is approved and the cost estimate is too low and the work comes in higher than the estimate; they have to vote for any amount that goes over," Landwehr said. "In the past, the county has done estimates for NIDs, and I think that puts us at risk."
Landwehr said they have looked at possibly telling those wanting to do an NID they have to hire their own engineering company to do estimates instead of it being the county's responsibility.
"If we have residents who want to improve their road and want to pursue this approach, I'm all for it," Western District Commissioner Harry Otto said.
The possibility of a new NID is expected to be discussed further at a future commission meeting.