Imperial Avenue, Forest Lake’s curved, half-paved, half-gravel road south of the lake and north of Scandia Trail, was discussed again at the Forest Lake City Council’s Aug. 17 meeting. However, if anything will be done to finish paving the street remains to be seen.
Before the discussion, Pat Kennedy, one of the six Imperial property owners who would likely be assessed if the paving project moved forward, told the council he was disappointed that the city was even “wasting time” talking about the project when a majority of the affected taxpayers on the road haven’t asked that it be paved.
“I’m kind of questioning how we got so far along in the process,” he said, adding that the city’s initial estimate that he could be assessed around $15,000 for the improvements would equal 10 percent of the cost of his home.
The drive to pave the rest of the road has been spearheaded primarily by Imperial residents who already had the street in front of their homes paved in 2009. Though the street is all one road, a sharp curve and decrease in elevation in the middle of it has led some to refer to the paved, northern section as “lower Imperial” and the unpaved, southern section as “upper Imperial.” The lower Imperial residents want the rest of the road paved because Imperial is a dead-end street; anyone wishing to leave the neighborhood is forced to drive over gravel.
Mayor Stev Stegner and Councilman Michael Freer responded to Kennedy that they felt it was a good idea to learn about the possibilities of such a project if there is any citizen interest, noting that they have not decided to take action.
“I think anytime people are petitioning, we should at least have a discussion on this,” Freer said.
Initial city estimates of the roadwork cost pegged the per-lot assessment for the six properties still on the gravel road at roughly $15,700. At the Aug. 17 meeting, after receiving potential bids for the work, City Engineer Ryan Goodman said the new estimate for the project’s cost was closer to $76,000 in all – a few hundred dollars below $13,000 per property (and comparable to what lower Imperial residents were assess in 2009).
Even with the price reduction, however, the council was reticent to move forward without more support from the six landowners, who, should a project move forward, could challenge the amount of the assessment on the grounds that it doesn’t improve their property values by the amount they are paying. Freer said he wouldn’t want to hold a public hearing on the project unless more than 50 percent of the landowners sign an official petition requesting the work.
“I’m fine with presenting (the new cost) to them but making it clear that there’s no pressure to do it,” he said.
Councilman Ben Winnick, however, said he sympathized with the lower Imperial residents and pointed out that the gravel oddity doesn’t make sense from a city maintenance or aesthetic standpoint.
“There’s not a lot of cities where you’re driving around where it goes from blacktop to dirt to mud to rock back to blacktop,” he said, adding that he thought the project would probably boost property values by an amount comparable to the assessment.
Goodman will send the new information about costs to each of the affected property owners.