Council votes to start design work turning path into city road

City Council adopted an ordinance Monday night accepting an advance payment in funds from a retirement home company for design engineering work to make improvements to Circle Drive, off Columbus Road in Athens.

Transportation Committee chair Christine Knisely told Council Members that a portion of the improvements will be paid for using grant funds; another portion will be paid for using the advance payment from the University Healthcare and Retirement Community project; and the third portion will be paid for with assessments on property owners near the site.

Third Ward member Nancy Bain addressed concerns about the tax burden associated with unfinished roads. She noted that sales taxes fund the county and the state, while property taxes fund the school systems. It is the local income tax that funds the city, she said.

"So the city takes that money and divides it into administration, fire and police, and streets," she said. "About one-fifth of it, according to the city engineer, goes into the fund to build streets."

The situation that the city is in with regard to Circle Drive came about, she said, in large measure from a land division system that is allowed by the state. and that has led to a number of land parcels being served by a substandard roadway. Under the existing system a large parcel can be divided into smaller parcels without any public action, as long as there is a street running in front of it.

"In this case, it was Columbus Road," Bain explained. "Then the largest parcel was sold and it got divided still further. So we have approximately at least 10 parcels along a path that's not really a road by city standards. And so that's what we're trying to solve."

She said the city Planning Commission created an expectation that the developer of this 10-acre commercial "assemblage of lots" would upgrade the access road to the point that the city would accept it as a road.

"Right now, it's a pathway partially on the city road... and it is not up to our standards," Bain said.

She said City Council has previously tried several times unsuccessfully to seek funding to deal with the issue. The city asked for help from the Appalachian Regional Commission, but was not economically "distressed" enough to receive assistance at that time. Bain said that apparently the city is now "distressed" enough, and can receive up to 80 percent of the costs for the improvements from the ARC.

"This is not a new approach. Previously we had done this with Holzer Road, which was a pathway like this one "“ a pathway that wasn't a road that lots of businesses had been located on," she said.

Bain said a policy was developed several years ago under which, if the city has no acceptable road in a given area where businesses are located, those businesses will help pay the local match to get a grant.

At least one affected business owner is taking issue with this proposal, however.

In a letter to the editor to The Athens NEWS last week, Michael Deddens, who said he owns three parcels of land on Columbus Road, argued that he has already paid his share.

"Fifteen years ago I built a building on the access road that now leads to New to You, Abbey Carpet & Tile, Deddens Professional building, one vacant lot, and an accounting firm," he stated in his letter. "I inquired about city services for this road only to find out it was never adopted into the city. I was told by the then city street director Rodger Bail it would never be adopted by the city as it was not up to city standards. So for the last fifteen years I have paid over $400,000 in real estate taxes alone on these three parcels, paid for snow removal, cut the grass on the city right of way, picked up the trash and filled in the erosion on the bank."

After all this, Deddens wrote, the city wants to "levy a tax against the business owners on the access road for a pro-rated share." But "I have already paid my share," he wrote. "It stands to reason they cannot do this since the access road is substandard and has never been adopted and, according to Andy Stone and Mayor Wiehl and I quote: 'We do not take over something that is substandard.'"