Correction: an earlier version of this post quoted Alderman Fitterer saying he supported spending the entire $1.5 million, which was incorrect.
The Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Alderman paved the road to paving a new road Monday night.
The BOMA approved 6-2 a letter of intent to enter a public-private partnership that will, once a final agreement is reached, extend Rice Road south from Derryberry Road by a mile within three years at a cost to the city of no more than $1.5 million. Crestwood Partners and Cornerstone Land Company, the two private partners, will cover remaining costs of $5.5 million.
The city’s part will be to install 18-inch sewage and 12-inch water lines at a cost of $1.2 million and not to exceed $1.5 million out of the city’s Sewage, not General, Fund. The money likely will not need to be paid until the road, which sits on Spring Hill’s southeast side and will extend south from Derryberry Road, is being built.
Crestwood and Cornerstone, for their part, will do the heavy lifting of physically building the road.
According to the resolution, the road must be completed within 3 years of a definitive agreement. The city has 30 days from the vote to complete such, before the letter of intent voids.
The benefit to Crestwood and Cornerstone, both residential developers, is obvious. Crestwood owns 133.82 acres east of Rice Road, while Cornerstone owns approximately 182.3 acres west of it, and the new roadway would give them access enough to develop.
“These properties do not have the road access required for the type of developments that each company intends to develop,” Jonathan Duda, Alderman Ward 2, said.
The city gets the benefit of having one of its priority road projects built with a sewer and water system capacity that can handle likely future development in the area.
Originally the road was to be extended up 1.6 miles, with the city paying up to $2 million but was reduced, after the city decided to take more time figuring out how to connect it with the most benefit, and also to reduce .
The two dissenting aldermen, Amy Wurth, Ward 1, and Brandon McCollogh, Ward 4, argued that none of the money needs to be spent, by the city, to get the project done.
“This will get done without us by development,” Wurth said. “I have made it clear I am going to vote against this, because it is $1.5 million we are spending that we wouldn’t have to.”
Matt Fitterer, Ward 2, however, said that if the city let developers do it, the sewage line- as required to satisfy existing ordinances- built would be 8-inch diameter sewage and 6-inch water, and thus not serve future development in the area.
“Paying the cost delta to increase the lines to 18 and 12 from 8 and 6 would be well worth it,” he said.
Wurth also argued that it was unwise to spend the money, even though it was not out of the general fund, on a project that was not a high priority. Don’t jump it ahead, she said, just because the chance came up to do it.
The city ranked the Rice Road extension as its 20th priority on its list of current needed projects last January.
“This was in my top five,” Jonathan Duda, Ward 2, said. “And last January everyone asked why, why would I put it so high?
He said that was because building Rice Road out– it will be as a three-lane road– serves to accommodate the of density of development off of Derryberry and the surrounding area. That is, a quickly developing area, that is close to the interstate, and other important roads that will benefit from the build out.
As Bruce Hull, vice-mayor, said, Spring Hill gets three-quarters of a collector road built out of the project, an undisputed ultimate benefit to development and traffic.
That build out, however, and this extension project does not solve Rice Road once and for all.
“We still have decisions to make to the south,” Duda said.
Meaning, where will Rice Road ultimately connect-through, and how, are questions to be answered at a later date.
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