Council talks alternative routes to subdivision

A city councilor expressed doubt about the city?s efforts to annex a portion of Country Club Road at a work session Wednesday. The city has annexed a patch of ground west of Country Club Road which is slated to become a subdivision known as Oakwood Village. Councilor Bob Shellmyer said the city should look at alternative entry points to Oakwood Village other than Country Club Road.

Shellmyer said there are two other possible entry points to Oakwood Village, which are entering it from the Wayland Road or entering it from the north on Lincoln Street.

?I?m just wondering, do we have the cart before the horse?? he said.

Councilor Merlin Hagie said the developer of the subdivision, Vogel Construction of Washington, suggested the connection to Country Club Road.

City Administrator Brent Hinson said the city has already agreed to a preliminary approval of Vogel?s plat pending the annexation of Country Club Road.

?I?m not sure this is something that is open to re-negotiation, unless you can convince the developer that it?s in their interest,? he said.

Hagie said, ?We wouldn?t accept the plat without some agreement on the road.?

Hinson said there are legal issues involved with changing the agreement with Vogel at this time. Apart from that, he said the developer wouldn?t want to debate a topic that was believed to be a settled point.

?If we try to re-negotiate the point, that?s going to be perceived as negotiating in bad faith,? Hinson said.

Shellmyer said he fears that the city is acting too fast.

?Did we look at any other possibilities or did we jump in and say, ?Golly, there?s a road there, it?s got to be the best.? As I look at it and as I drive around it, I see there are other opportunities. Maybe it is the best but you?ve got to convince me of it.?

Shellmyer said that an access road from Lincoln Street to Oakwood Village could be made shorter than the one from the Country Club Road. Mayor Sandra Johnson said that she believed such a road would be more difficult to engineer because of the slope of the ground there and because a watershed runs through it. Councilor Bob Shepherd said he?d never heard any serious consideration of building an access road to the north onto Lincoln Street.

Shellmyer asked Hinson if it was worth it to annex the Country Club Road just for the four properties on it. Hinson said the annexation of the road was about more than just those four properties. He said the access road would serve the 20 lots planned in the subdivision.

?We?re also talking about providing access to another property that is not within the city limits currently but very easily could be,? he said.

?Are we looking at annexing the country club next? Is that what we?re heading toward?? asked Shellmyer.

Hinson said there has been discussion on that topic but that nothing has been decided.

In an interview Monday, Hinson said the city wants to improve the Country Club Road if it is annexed into the city limits. It is currently 20 feet wide, which he said is too narrow for city street standards. He said the width the city would pave it is still up for discussion but he guessed it would be in the neighborhood of 25 feet.