The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

Joplin Metro

Discussion

November 8, 2009

Webb City, state officials to lay out proposal for Madison projects

By Emily Younker

eyounker@joplinglobe.com

WEBB CITY, Mo. — City officials will be on hand after work Tuesday with representatives from the state Transportation Department to explain a plan for projects along Madison Street and a taxing district to help pay for them.

No formal presentation is planned, but officials will be available from 5 to 7 p.m. to detail the projects, answer questions and accept comments.

The projects, estimated to cost between $4 million and $5 million, include intersection work, street widening and traffic light installation along Madison Street between Sunset Creek — which is just north of Walgreens — and 13th Street, according to City Administrator Steve Garrett.

Chuck Surface, economic development director, said most of the transportation needs along Madison Street are based on safety issues.

The Wal-Mart Supercenter entrance at Madison and 13th streets, for example, is the site of a significant portion of traffic accidents in Webb City, Surface said.

“It’s just way too narrow to accommodate the traffic,” he said.

Surface said the proposal calls for widening the intersection to ease traffic flow and adding a pedestrian walkway.

Also included in the proposal is a traffic light at Madison and Seventh streets, where the City Pointe shopping center is located. The shopping center houses the City Pointe Beauty Academy, Lil Rascals Boutique, Closet Works Lighting, Check Into Cash, Papa John’s Pizza and Quiznos.

Garrett said construction costs for the project would come from a transportation development district, or TDD, that the city hopes to establish along that section of Madison Street.

A TDD is a taxing entity, established by state statutes, that can impose up to a 1 percent sales tax within its boundaries, and can help finance roads and infrastructure projects.

Surface said the city is working with several businesses within the proposed district to file a petition with Jasper County Circuit Court to authorize a TDD. He declined to specify which businesses because the petition has not been completed.

Surface said the amount of the sales tax increase within the proposed TDD would be determined by a vote of businesses in the district once the TDD has been established. It likely would range between three-eighths of a cent and a half-cent, he said.

The combined state, county and city sales tax in Webb City is 7.7 cents per $1.

The TDD would be in place until the project is paid off, which would likely be 15 to 20 years, Surface said.

Residents who live within the district would not be affected, unless their home is also a business, because they do not generate sales tax, Surface said.

While the TDD would cover construction costs, the city has budgeted about $542,000 for land acquisition and engineering costs associated with the project, Garrett said. That amount would come from a $7.8 million bond issue voters approved in April 2008 for infrastructure projects, to be paid for by a three-eighths-cent sales tax increase approved in August 2007.

Because of rising interest rates, the city plans to borrow about $5.7 million instead, Garrett said. That also would finance repair work on Hall Street, estimated at $1.3 million; improvements to Stadium Drive and Pennsylvania Street, costing $1.7 million; and work on Madison Street between Stadium Drive and Daugherty Street, costing nearly $1 million.

Garrett said the city plans to move forward with establishing a TDD for Madison Street, but it is unclear how long that could take.

“We know the steps,” Garrett said. “The unknown is the length of time that some of those steps might take. Our timeline is somewhat spongy.”

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