Redesign Slows Progress

Monte Ne Resident Says Road Too Close To House

— Property acquisition for the Monte Ne Road project has stopped until a redesign is completed of the confluence of the road with Arkansas, First and Oak streets.

The intersection redesign isn’t the only issue facing the project. Right of way purchase is a contentious point with at least one property owner.

Barbara Horton, who owns 30 acres at 1331 Monte Ne Road near Veterans Park, is concerned the widening will have a major impact on her property.

“In 2011, I attended a public hearing on the project. Then I didn’t hear anything until last month when a man representing the city asked me to sign some documents for the right of way across my property,” Horton said.

The appraised market value of Horton’s 27.44 acres, which includes outbuildings and a 2,000-square-foot, two-story home, is $358,500, according to city documents.

City officials said they want to purchase 1.5 acres, or 50,030 square feet, of mostly pasture land on the front side of Horton’s property for $8,300, according to the appraisal.

“It’s not the money as much as it is what it’s going to do to my property,” said Horton of Conway.

She said the widening project will bring Monte Ne Road within 16 feet of the steps to her house. Built in 1912, the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the acreage is used for cattle production.

At A Glance

The Monte Ne Road Improvement Project

Monte Ne Road is one of the major street projects in the 2011 bond election that extended a 1 percent sale tax to repay $135.4 million in bonds.

• The project is divided into two sections, Monte Ne north and Monte Ne south.

• The northern section is expected to cost about $6 million and the southern section, about $4 million.

• Construction is not expected to begin on the southern section until late this year.

• Construction on the northern section isn’t expected to begin until 2014.

Source: Staff Report

Steve Glass, city director of planning and transportation, said the distance between the house and street should be about 30 feet when the project is finished.

“From the back of the sidewalk to the closest edge of the house should be no closer than 30 feet,” Glass said.

It is now 71 feet from the centerline of the existing street to the closest point of Horton’s house, according to city documents.

However, there are metal stakes with orange markers well inside the fence in the pasture area. Horton said she believes the markers indicate the amount of property the city intends to take.

“I don’t know what those stakes are for,” Glass said. “There have been several surveys done in the area besides the one done for the city.”

A representative from Garver LLC, which performed the survey of the project, said Friday the stakes represent two values.

“Some of the stakes closest to the existing roadway represent the proposed right of way,” said Nathan Becknell. “The stakes with the orange markers represent an additional temporary easement for use during construction.”

Glass said he hasn’t been out to the property lately nor has he talked with Horton.

“We haven’t acquired all the property we need for the right of way as yet. We are still dealing with four property owners, one of whom is Horton,” Glass said.

The Monte Ne Road project is divided into two sections. The southern section is between New Hope Road and Gum Street. The northern section runs from Gum Street to the intersection of First, Oak and Arkansas streets.

It will be late this year before construction on the south end of the project begins, Glass said. The southern section is designed as a four-lane road.

Construction on the northern section, designed as a four-lane boulevard with curb, gutter and storm drainage, is not expected to begin until 2014, said Lance Jobe, city engineer. As a boulevard, the northern section also will include a median.

The redesign of the intersection where First, Oak, Arkansas and Monte Ne converge is “major,” Jobe said.

“We stopped buying right of way until we know whether or not we are going to buy additional property because of the redesign,” he added.

Originally, the streets simply converged into a single intersection.

When the owner of the former bird seed factory between the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad tracks and First Street decided to demolish the building, the door was opened for city officials to connect Oak Street to the intersection.

“That gave us the opportunity to bring Oak Street through and provide another east-west connection. Rather than just add Oak Street into the intersection, we decided to redesign the intersection into a roundabout,” Jobe said.

The roundabout will have to be large enough to handle not only the convergence of four streets, but large trucks. The roundabout is scheduled to be part of the eastern corridor running from Arkansas 16 in Fayetteville to U.S. 62 in Rogers.

The city has purchased a few homes on Arkansas Street for demolition to accommodate the roundabout.

Once property owners have removed whatever they want from the houses, Habitat For Humanity crews salvage as much building material as possible from the structures.

The Rogers Fire Department either burns the remaining structure or a crew from the Street Department demolishes the structure and levels the ground, city officials said.

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