11-27-1995 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE REGULAR ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON NOVEMBER-211 9 I9o5 ( #1 - Assessment Hearing - Willow Drive North - Continued) • Hurr asked where Orono Plaza property is located and the acreage comparison between the two commercial properties. Gustafson pointed out on a map the northwest quadrant of Hwy 12 and Willow where the Orono Plaza property is located. Rice said the Orono Plaza property consists of 56 acres but was unaware of the amount of acreage for the Otten property, which he did say was smaller in size. Callahan informed the public of the letter received from Otten voicing his opposition to the assessment. Jabbour said the street was designed as it is because of the commercial properties, and some improvements that were made would not, otherwise, be needed. Gustafson explained that as part of the Hwy 12 reconstruction project, the semaphore was matched with the traffic to the south. A right lane was added to direct traffic to the east to the Otten property, made wider, and for year- around use to withstand the weight of trucks using the commercial properties. Kelley added that the roadway was designed to accommodate the future service road servicing these properties. Gustafson said a median would be built to line up with the frontage road also. Gustafson said the road design was such to handle the increase of traffic benefiting the commercial properties which, otherwise, would not have been needed. Cliff Otten, owner of the other commercial property, arrived at this time. He noted that • his letter stipulated a starting time for the hearing of 7:00 p.m., which he showed to the Council. Let it be noted that the affidavit of publication showed a starting time of 6:45 p.m. Otten said he spoke with Moorse about the assessment. He was informed that the assessment amount was 25% of the total cost. Otten said he does not receive 25% of the benefit of the project. He added that Willow Drive was the only north -south link and only through street maintained in the area. Otten said Moorse had informed him that the rest of Willow Drive would be improved at some time with no assessment. Moorse was reported to have said the other project would not be as extensive and would require overlays about every five years. Otten said if this is true, the cost of additional overlays over a period of time would reach that of the improvement under discussion. There were no additional public comments, and Callahan closed the public hearing. • 2