Secondary roads back up for discussion

WASHINGTON — Washington County Supervisors resumed talks about possible secondary road upgrades for 135th and 140th street south of Riverside at a work session last week.

By Dec. 6, the Board of Supervisors plans to have terms in mind for a secondary road assessment agreement. While such an agreement must be presented by local homeowners via petition, County Engineer Jacob Thorius said residents were waiting on the county for direction.

“That information is what’s maybe held up some of the subdivisions from having conversations among themselves on the potential direction to move,” he said. “They don’t know for sure where we’re at.”

That county has signaled willingness to work with Secondary Road Assessment districts, local bodies defined in state code that can propose road improvements via petition, as long as they agree to fund at least half of the work, and at least half the residents involved sign off.

An assessment district is drawn up by the residents who occupy it. It can be gerrymandered to keep houses out of the agreement but ties decision making power to land ownership of its members. Those excluded don’t get a say in road improvements, but don’t have to pay for them either.

"If they get enough people that don’t want to pay for it, then they can’t move forward,“ Thorius said. ”But if there are people who are willing, because they have the pocket book and they really want to do it, they can define that however they want. If I live across the street and I don’t want it, but these 20 people do and they’re willing to pay three times the cost as opposed to having 80 people in there, then so be it.“

There are some limitations on that line-drawing, however. Thorius said boundaries had to fall within a half-mile of the road and had to be contiguous. Otherwise, they can exclude neighborhoods, and potentially even single properties.

“If you draw a line and it looks like the state of Florida, it works,” he said.

Not all residents in the area are on board with road improvement proposals. Some, who attended the meeting, said local homeowners associations were inaccurately representing the local level of interest.

"It doesn‘t appear to me or several other people that live out there that there has been a fair election and fair representation on the board,“ Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said.

While the county can telegraph any terms for the agreement, the ultimate proposal comes down to a petition from members of an assessment district, not the HOAs or government officials.

"What we’ve done is, we’ve kind of got the cart ahead of the horse a little bit,“ Supervisor Marcus Fedler said. ”What they haven’t done is provided us with a petition yet … what we need is to educate the public, to tell them, ‘Hey, if you want more than what we’re giving you, then put a petition together.’“

The county would send a letter turning down cost-sharing requests from one of the area’s HOAs, but stressed that it work with assessment districts, not with associations themselves.

“If you say no, and all your neighbors say no, then you are fairly represented,” Fedler said. “The proof’s going to come in the pudding. If the petition is fake or BS, then we’re going to find that out pretty quick.”

Residents near 135th and 140th street may not be the only ones waiting to hear from the county. Board of Supervisors Chair Richard Young said other communities were intrigued by the process.

“I’m afraid there’s going to be some other subdivisions in the south part of the county that are going to come knocking on our door,” he said. “I can almost guarantee it.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com