Or is it a road to nowhere?
On Monday, 9/27/10 the city council voted to remove entirely the Monticello Road project from the 6 year capital improvement plan. This was the planned reconstruction from Midland Drive to the 7900 block. The idea was to create a four lane roadway.
Let's do a quick recap..............
The residents of the area did not want the project. They bought these homes, most on acreage, so they could be in the country. Vehicle traffic is very limited on that road
The city said too bad.
The residents said there would be a problem with a buried 8 inch high pressure gas pipeline. The city was very cavalier on this......almost passing it off as a non-issue.Then, negotiations with Southern Star took so long, that that was a contributing factor in the original delay....whcih eventually necessitated the city returning CARS money.
By the way, under the terms of the negotiations with Southern Star, it is the city I believe who will have to pay the major portion for the movement of the gas pipeline.And, I believe, that is subject to renegotiation after a cerain point in time. What will be the costs down the road?
Whoooops and what else also happened?
Well, let's see, the city had to buy out two homeowners completely and get them relocated. Remember, that most of these homes sit on large lots, mostly acreage. Believe the city also had to buy lots of front yard, rear yard, side yard areas as additional rights of way for the larger road.
Oh yes, and then there were some new easements that the city paid for. They were so that construction equipment could encroach on what was left of those yards. Easements with time restraints that will probably have to be renegotiated because of the construction delays...............unless, as some dreamers think, those homeowners would donate the eaements without compensation. Fat chance on that one.
Should we even talk about the street lights that were taken down (to make way for the larger road) that have had to be replaced with temporary street lights? Hmmmmm, and what about yard maintenance? Believe the city has to rev up a bunch of mowers now for their newly acquired home sites.
So what has the city gotten for its 3+ million dollars already spent? A road project, that many were against, and that is now not even listed on the capital improvement plan? Land that they must now take care of for weed control etc.
What was the impetus for this? Did it have anything to do with a chunk of land on the south end? Land bordering on Lenexa that could some day be developed or sold to developers for commercial property? But, that development can't be done without a wider road?
