Box Elder sets Sept. 17 hearing on $4.5 million Cimarron/Chisholm street project, staff to prepare resolution of necessity

The Box Elder City Council voted Aug. 20 to accept a preliminary engineering report (PER) and set a public hearing for Sept. 17 on a proposed $4.5 million Cimarron and Chisholm road and utility project that could be paid in part by frontage assessments to adjacent commercial and industrial property owners.

Scott Lang, the city engineer, described the scope as finishing water and sanitary sewer, constructing the street to city standards with curb, gutter and storm sewer, adding a trail and planting street trees. He told the council the estimated cost is "4,500,000" with about $2.7 million attributable to Cimarron and $1.8 million to Chisholm.

Lang explained the city's model for paying the work could include front-foot assessments to benefiting properties: "The city's got just under 20% of those costs," he said, and showed front-foot figures included in the PER. He described the assessment as a statutory option to direct costs to properties that will directly benefit from the street and utilities.

During public comment, commercial property owner Paul Bridal warned such an assessment could 'literally bankrupt me' and said the tax would exceed his net income if assessed as proposed. Lang and staff acknowledged some parcels previously had water and sewer installed by earlier developers and that tapping onto those services would be assessed accordingly.

Council voted to accept the PER, authorize staff to prepare a proposed resolution of necessity and to set a public hearing for Sept. 17, 2024. If the council proceeds after the hearing, a resolution of necessity could be adopted and the city would later hold a second hearing at assessment time; assessments, if adopted, would be certified to the county for property tax purposes.