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City seeks right of way from east Sidney property owners

The city of Sidney seeks to gain additional right of way from property owners along the Toledo St. extension as well as Greenwood Rd. for roadwork planned on both streets during this year’s construction season.

Last week, city manager Gary Person sent a letter to property owners along the area planned for reconstruction to ask for more right of way along the routes.

“The street improvement district is being formed and assessed as a general benefit to the entire community and NOT just directly to each adjacent property owner,” the letter stated.

Greenwood Rd. will connect to the extension of Toledo St., which will eventually run from Fort Sidney Rd. to the 17-J link near the wastewater treatment plant.

The city currently has 66 feet of right of way to construct or reconstruct the roads and place utilities. In the letter, the city asked property owners along the route to grant Sidney seven additional feet of right of way on each side of the street.

Most of the streets that were built in the city in the past received an 80 foot right of way, even before it was necessary for the city to place underground utilities within that space. Now the city buries electric lines, storm water management, telecommunications wiring, telephone and cable lines.

“We have a lot more things we have to fit into a public right of way than we used to,” Person explained.

Toledo St. and Greenwood Rd. were originally built along county section lines. At that time law mandated that on every section line the county was deeded 66 feet for public right of way for road construction in order to connect rural areas.

When these areas were annexed into the city, the city became owner of this public right of way, which is why these roads have a smaller right of way than other city streets.

Large developments in the east Sidney area including the new hospital, The Ranch housing development and Source Gas’s new location have already deeded the city the extra right of way.

Street lights and sidewalks both have to fit into this right of way, as well.

“From a safety perspective, the more space you can give it from sidewalks to street, the better off you’re gonna be,” Person said.

Portions of Greenwood Rd. pose a problem because it was previously a narrow county road with properties near the street.

“It becomes very challenging to try and get the additional seven feet, but we want to start the process at least to ask,” Person said. “We’re only gonna do this thing one time and we’d like to do it right.”

In the letter, the city asked residents to help make the street as nice appearing as possible.

“Exciting times are ahead for east Sidney with several million dollars of new improvements beginning construction,” the letter stated.

Some landowners indicated hesitance to give up the extra seven feet, Person confirmed.

“If they don’t, we do have the right under the law to take it through imminent domain,” Person said. “Everybody would prefer not to do that.”

The city must first negotiate with the property owners in good faith.

“There’s always a little give and take with each one of these properties and that’s why we want people to contact us,” Person said.

The council chose to fund this project with bonds for an arterial street that has a general benefit to the entire city.

“It’s just one of the signs of progress that you have to move forward and look at the millions and millions of dollars of development that’s gonna occur as a result of the streets getting built,” Person said. “It does have general benefit to the community.”

He admitted that this doesn’t decrease the challenge to individual property owners who are concerned about how giving up the extra right of way will affect their property, especially if it’s already close to the road.

At last week’s city council meeting, councilman Mark Nienhueser asked what could be done to persuade property owners to concede the extra right of way the city needs on Greenwood Rd.

“If those parties choose not to give the right of way to the city and the city has to acquire it, how are we going to treat those properties different than the ones that give the right of way?” Nienhueser asked.

If a small number of property owners don’t agree to give up the extra seven feet, the city should be able to work around it in order to avoid the condemnation process, said city attorney J. Leef. However, this couldn’t be accomplished very comfortably the entire stretch of the road.

The city cannot say that a road is for the benefit of the entire city, but is contingent upon only a few landowners gifting property for it, Leef added. In order to protect the city’s qualification for general obligation bonds to pay for the project, Leef said she could not think of a legal way to offer incentive for deeding the extra right of way.

“It just seems like, everybody’s got to give the right of way if you’re gonna have a public artery,” Nienhueser said.

This is a major benefit to the property owners, he added and if one or two property owners don’t agree to it, it doesn’t seem fair to the others. Nienhueser wondered how the city proposed to solve this problem.

“We try to work with the property owners and get them to understand the merits of it and go through the notification process,” Person said.

At last week’s meeting, the council created street improvement districts for both the Toledo St. extension and Greenwood Rd. The council also gave permission for advertisement for the two projects for bids to be received on March 6.

The city hopes to begin construction on these projects this spring.

 

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