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Council asked to declare necessity and set public hearing for School Street alley petition after first successful petition in 21 years
Summary
City staff described the alley-petition program and a petition for School Street that met the required signatory threshold; council is asked to declare necessity and order a March 18 public hearing to consider levying assessments on participating properties.
City staff on March 3 briefed the Garland City Council on the city’s alley petition program and presented a specific successful petition for the School Street alley initiated by property owner Yesenia Morales. Staff told the council the program, established decades ago to enable residents to pave unimproved alleys, has not produced a successful petition in about 21 years and that the Morales petition met the ordinance threshold for proceeding.
Under the city’s program, staff explained, construction costs for an alley are estimated by engineering, divided by the linear footage of the project, and the resulting assessment is allocated among property owners according to the ordinance formula. The standard cost-sharing structure described to council is: city pays approximately 33 percent and property owners (typically on both sides of an alley) share the remainder; in this petition only one side of the alley has qualifying residential lots and the other side contains commercial properties, so the parcel makeup affects who is assessed.
Staff said petition rules require at least 51 percent of the frontage (by value) to sign in favor; for the School Street petition all three qualifying property owners signed, which staff described as 100 percent participation for the affected frontage. The council was asked to "determine necessity" for the project and to order a public hearing for levying assessments, which staff proposed scheduling for March 18; staff said affected property owners would be allowed to speak for or against the assessments at that hearing. Staff also clarified that paving an alley does not automatically change municipal trash-collection practices and that alley paving alone would not necessarily move a property to rear-yard trash pickup.
The council did not take the necessity determination during the work session; staff said a minute order to declare necessity and to set the public hearing will be presented at the next regular meeting for council action.
