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EVERYBODY PAYS FOR VICTORIA STREETS
INCLUDING THOSE ON 77TH AND LILAC CIRCLE
On November 10th Victoria council-members unanimously ordered street, drainage, and utility improvements for 77th Street and Lilac Circle. The motion came only after affected residents spoke at length during a public hearing that evening.
These City Scoop pages have already covered related citizen comment in detail, and it remains unchanged: Affected resi-dents blame poor city maintenance for the demise of their streets; some don't want to pay all of a proposed assessment; some don't want the streets reconstructed at this time; there are petitions for and against.
Councilmember Mary Thun stated, "Your road is almost 25 years old. I feel I'd be negligent in not repairing it. When you say you want the city to pay more of the cost, the city is all of us. We have changed the city policy. Back in 2003 it was a 70/30 split with 70% of costs picked up by the benefiting residents and 30% by the city. We brought it to 50/50. That second 50% is all of us helping to pay for your street, for various reasons."
City Engineer Jack Griffin stated, "Even if maintenance had been properly done, the subgrade would have still failed. There is a consistent failure. The road would still need to be reconstructed today even if there had been perfect main-tenance."
Councilmember Terry Bishop said, "The council is in a no-win situation. There is no way we can make this unpain-ful. Someone has to pay for the roads. It has to come out of somebody's pocket. If you go to some cities, there is 100% assessment! Here we pay 50%."
Responding to other comments from residents in attendance, Councilmember Bishop continued, "Don't re-elect us if that's the way you feel about it. We have a responsibility to everybody in the com-munity. My viewpoint is to do the road and assess the 50%. Essentially, it's the same for everybody. If you think this is unfair, it can be said we're treating every-body equally unfairly."
Said Councilmember Kim Roden, "Councilmember Bishop has expressed my views and I won't repeat it. Council has adopted a policy and I support the policy. I had to vote to reconstruct my own street last summer and it was double your assessment. Everyone has had something bad happen to their roads. Part of the role of a council is safety of its citizens. Safety is not being demonstrated by a council that does not fix its roads. The price of oil is going up. It will only get more expensive to fix. We have a hardship policy [for paying assessments] in place for you. We must have safe roads in the City of Victoria."
Said Councilmember Richard Tieden, "The roads need to be replaced. Better maintenance would not have changed the outcome for today, but it's important to hear it and belabor it and go through the process."
Councilmember Bishop added, "Pub-lic Works will be held more accountable. They've got to get the job done or get a job in another community. As long as I'm on this council, we'll hold our Public Works people to a regular maintenance plan. This is a more sophisticated city than it used to be. Half the battle is get-ting a program for maintenance."
Mayor Jerry Bohn pointed out that back in 1998, when he was also on the council, the City of Victoria hired a separate engineering firm to look at the roads in Victoria and rate them for re-construction. The streets under consider-ation at this time, including 77th and Lilac Circle, are slated for reconstruction in 2006.
Mayor Bohn also referred to Wood-stone Drive at Deer Run. "That road was given proper maintenance," he said, "but there is a sub-base failure. It is only 15 years old … I agree with the council. It's not like this is us versus them. We're doing it to ourselves too. We're doing what we think we have to do as elected officials."
Total cost for reconstructing 77th Street is $176,000. With the city picking up half of that cost, the 22 benefiting properties are left with assessments of $4,000 each.
Total cost for reconstructing Lilac Circle is $156,000. With the city picking up half of that cost, the 13 benefiting properties are left with assessments of $6,000 each.
FLOYD'S REQUESTS A COVERED PATIO
PARKING IS A DOWNTOWN VICTORIA ISSUE
Councilmembers tabled a request by Rick and Lois Plocher to construct a 42-foot by 28-foot covered patio addition for their establishment, Floyd's Bar, in down-town Victoria.
In discussion prior to the tabling, City Planner Eric Zweber reported, "The addi-tion would not remove any of the existing parking lot, but only the grassy knoll. The Planning Commission found that it met most guidelines, but parking became the issue for them. They felt there was some latitude because of its seasonal nature."
Eric said that one of the conditions recommended by the Commission requires Floyd's to get signatures from other downtown businesses to share their existing parking to accommodate Floyd's customers.
Lois Plocher spoke to councilmem-bers that evening of November 10th. "As a business owner it's important to listen to our customers," she said. "This addition would be for small retirement parties, for groups of 20 to 25 people, for after-work gatherings. That's what started this re-quest. We could guarantee such an event because of the roof, in the event of rain."
"We've drawn a lot of new people because of the outdoor grill," said Lois. "We need to be consistent to have successful promotions. Our inside space is very small. This is a small grassy knoll not being used for anything. This doesn't interfere with the dentist parking. This is more for off-night and off-times."
The city planner pointed out that city policy requires all new businesses to meet 100% of their parking needs on their own site, and that the Planning Commission is anticipating the Downtown Master Plan and how parking will work for everyone.
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