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The Victoria

GAZETTE

PAVED STREETS AND SANITARY SEWER

ORDERED FOR ASTER TRAIL AREA OF VICTORIA

Council voted 4-1 on January 28th to bring sewer and street utility improvements to the northeast corner of Victoria in the area of Aster Trail and Aster Circle, which are also on the northeast corner of Lake Virginia. Currently the 19 homes have gravel streets, individual septic systems, and individual wells. Municipal water was not part of the motion.

"We made a robust presentation on this item on December 10th," said City Engineer Cara Geheren. On that final evening of 2012, councilmembers accepted the feasibility report which estimated costs to be $13,900/unit for street and stormwater construction, $19,800/unit for sanitary sewer, and $17,800/unit for municipal water.

To construct all three would mean an estimated assessment of $51,500 per unit. Some neighbors own three parcels. Total project cost to do all three utilities, was estimated at $1,927,500.

"We held a neighborhood meeting on January 17th," said Cara. "The two new councilmembers were able to attend. I asked the neighborhood to attend this council meeting. I've met with property owners one on one. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of support for water improvement. I'd say that over half of the neighborhood is in favor of both sanitary sewer and street and stormsewer."

Cara pointed out that bringing improvements to this corner of the city has been in the works since 1989. "It seems every so often this all comes up, especially for sewer and streets," she said. "There have been multiple petitions over the years, which tells me there's a need. Then it falls apart when we get to the costs."

Cara said that Lake Virginia is impaired and there are at least three non-compliant septic systems in the neighborhood, which are under orders to improve them.

"The streets are beyond their useful life," continued Cara. "We could keep grading them, but we do need to get a new road base. It makes sense to move forward with sewer and new streets. This is a unique neighborhood. Cost is a concern. Time is a concern. It would make sense for staff to help come up with a creative way to finance costs."

She said the neighborhood property owners would see assessments hit their property tax statements in 2015. "Typically, the final layer of asphalt is installed in the second year, so the final assessment hearing would be in 2014."

Responding to questions from the council, Cara said the city probably spent about $20,000 on this current feasibility study alone. There were at least two other feasibility studies ordered for the area over the years, and improvements were studied about five times. She said if council approves going into the design phase, another $80,000 will be spent.

"The city is paying for 50% of the street costs so we want them to last a very, very long time," said Cara. If water was not put in at this time, she added, it could be installed later, boring under the streets, at two and a half times the cost. If streets were put in without sanitary sewer, the area may never get sanitary sewer.

The public hearing was opened up at 7:15 p.m. and closed at 7:40 p.m. Eleven residents at Aster Trail/Circle spoke at the podium. Most were in favor of new streets and sewer. No one spoke strongly in favor of municipal water.

Brad Stanton: The road is very dusty in the summer. There is wear and tear on cars. The mail truck won't go down one section of the road. We actually pulled out a city truck last year. There are only two dozen people driving on this road. Property values decrease on a gravel road. Thirteen out of 16 septics are potentially noncompliant. Nobody is developing out there because it might be discovered the septics are noncompliant and then they've got three years to comply.

Mr. Stanton handed out a seven-page printout detailing reasons for improving Aster Trail. In brief, those reasons included dust reduction; less wear and tear on vehicles due to washboarding effect, potholes, and mud; fewer wrecked cars as a result of skidding off the road; easier snow and ice removal; less grading and maintenance cost for the City of Victoria; an increase in property values on a paved road; property improvement and development; economic benefit to all neighbors and the city.

Greg Alm: We own four lots. We would love to have sewer. We would love to have a road. Other costs really don't work. We've lived there 16 to 17 years. It's a nice little area but it's tough. We'd like to have the road fixed. We are not in favor of water. Cara has done a wonderful job.

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