Only 2 hours and 14 minutes after learning that the Georgia Department of Transportation had turned down the county’s request for a full median break on Mars Hill Road to accommodate landowner Doug Dickens, Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis turned to “Plan B.”
Davis told the Commissioners that the county can build the median break when GDOT turns the highway back over to the county.
The county has known about “Plan B” for a long time. In fact it was mentioned in correspondence between Public Works Director Emil Beshara and the members of the Board of Commissioners as early as November of 2011.
But “Plan B” has three drawbacks.
First, the county is going to have to spend more than the $23,000 it expected to pay had GDOT allowed the median break before the widening of Mars Hill Road was completed.
Second, building the full median cut after the new road is open will be more disruptive and dangerous.
Third there is no guarantee the state is going to turn Mars Hill Road back over to the county when construction is completed.
GDOT Decision
G. Michelle Pate, senior design engineer in the Office of Design Policy and Support of GDOT, informed Beshara in an email message sent at 8:37 a.m. on Aug. 17 that the county’s variance request for a full median cut at the Dickens property on Mars Hill Road “has been denied.”
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| Looking North Dickens Drive On Right at Barrel Humane Society Drive On Left |
Pate sent the email to M.J. Sheehan, the lead design engineer for the Mars Hill project at Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc., and copied it to Beshara.
“GDOT feels the appropriate accommodation has been provided,” Pate wrote.
The county had requested that Moreland Altobelli make the case that the limited median cut approved by GDOT should be modified to a full median cut.
The county spent $5,000 making that argument on top of the $5,000 it had already spent on design work for the intersection.
GDOT originally had designed the road without any median cut at that location and modified those designs to accommodate Dickens during the negotiation phase over right of way for his property.
Dickens Contacted
Beshara wrote to County Administrative Officer Jeff Benko at 8:40 a.m. on Aug. 17, saying “GDOT has denied the Dickens median break. This is their final decision.”
Beshara said “I will let Doug know.”
At 11:23 a.m. Benko forwarded the message from Beshara, which included the correspondence from Pate, to the commissioners, asking Davis if he would “like to inform Mr. Dickens” of the decision.
Davis wrote back at 1:37 p.m. on Aug. 17, saying “Emil has already informed Doug. I have had a conversation with Doug. Plan B when GDOT turns the road over to the County.”
I obtained the email correspondence via an open records request.
Dickens’ Request
Dickens has been in discussion with the county for many years about his desire to have a full median cut at his property, which is across Mars Hill Road from the Athens Area Humane Society Spay and Neuter Clinic at 1871 Mars Hill Road.
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| Humane Society |
Although the 102 acres Dickens owns currently are zoned for agriculture, he has indicated that he plans to divide the land into 275 residential lots and also have 28,000 square feet of retail space and 42,000 square feet of office space fronting on Mars Hill Road.
Dickens has said he would expect to have sewage capacity for the project, which would be developed as a master plan development, and that he needs a full median cut to make that project feasible.
Dickens received $32,000 from the state as compensation for the easements he granted for the widening of Mars Hill Road, and he turned that back to the state to pay for the partial median break approved by the state.
Dickens told the county he would not pay the $23,000 additional cost needed to construct the full median cut.
The Board of Commissioners agreed to pay that amount at its meeting on July 5.
Beshara told them it was better to do the work before the construction now underway is complete to save money and to avoid closing the road once it has been reopened.
1999 Decision
Somewhere around 1999–neither Beshara nor County Attorney Daniel Haygood could come up with a precise date–Oconee County agreed to partner with the Georgia Department of Transportation to widen Mars Hill Road.
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| Looking South Dickens Property On Left Humane Society In Distance, Right |
According to Haygood, the county subsequently signed a contract with GDOT making Mars Hill Road a state route so that most of the funding for the project would be picked up by the state.
Since the state uses federal funds, that decision resulted in the four-lane road with bike lanes and sidewalks, rather than more limited improvements the county might have undertaken on its own.
After construction is completed–in this case, that is expected to be in May of 2018–the road “typically comes back to the county,” Haygood said.
It is “unlikely but not impossible” that the state could not return the route to the county, “if the state decided it needed to be added to the state highway system,” Haygood told me in an email message in December of last year.
Trucks On Road
The county historically has designed Mars Hill Road as a “No Through Truck Route,” according to Beshara, but the state cannot designate any of its roads as inaccessible to trucks.
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| Truck At Mars Hill Road Daniells Bridge Road On Left |
Trucks have been using Mars Hill Road even during the construction period.
“Truck traffic has picked up markedly since the project began,” Beshara told me in an email note late last year.
“When the road is eventually turned back over to the County, I expect that the Board will continue to keep it on the Not Through Truck list,” Beshara said.
No Guarantee
Beshara, too, said that there is no “guarantee” that the state will turn the route over to the county when construction is complete, and that the “county has no authority to take a road from the state.”
“It would be highly unusual for the State to keep the road over the objection of the County,” Beshara said.
GDOT describes the project as part of regional transportation improvements in its news releases.
On Feb. 29, 2016, a news release by Teri Pope from GDOT said the widening project will improve “mobility locally in Watkinsville and for the region in to and out of Clarke County.”
Next Phase
The next phase of the widening project will be from Butler’s Crossing to U.S. 441 along Experiment Station Road.
As such, Mars Hill Road would be a four-lane shortcut from U.S. 441 to SR 316 and then to U.S. 78 and the Caterpillar plant. The road is designed for 45-miles-per-hour traffic.
“Plan B” assumes that the state will turn the route over to the county.
Beshara wrote to the commissioners back in November of 2011 saying that he had talked to Dickens about the median break.
“I told him that I believed that his best shot at a median break was going to be after the road was turned back over to Oconee County. At that point he would be dealing with the local elected officials, and that the BOC had far more latitude in such matters.”
Beshara said he also had a “discussion” with Dickens “about the potential that GDOT would not turn the road back to the County.”
Dickens and the county decided not to wait to find out what the state actually does when the road is completed.
Now "Plan B" is the only one open to them.
6 comments:
Melvin is a determined old coot, isn't he? And is Dickens the same one Melvin had the county buy land from at more than the appraised value for the park?
-Dickens told the county he would not pay the $23,000 additional cost needed to construct the full median cut.
Melvin Davis and landowner Doug Dickens,
1) If Dickens wants a medium cut that benefits him and his property, he needs to pay for it himself.
2) Being that the Dickens property is zoned for agriculture, there is no need at this time for a medium cut.
3) The drawbacks for a medium cut include safety. The safety of county residents must be a priority...that's a pretty darn big drawback.
4) Mr. Dickens "expects" sewage capacity, which the county does not have these days. Is Dickens paying for this
sewage capacity that would benefit his 275 plus home, retail and office property?
5) Who enforces Mars Hill Road as a designated “No Through Truck Route"? Are Caterpillar and Publix aware this road is a
“No Through Truck Route"?
6) Is is remarkable to note how much individual attention Mr. Dickens receives from Mr. Davis, Mr. Benko, and Mr. Beshara.
7) It is tough for any reasonable county taxpayer to read the previous post listed below, and not be infuriated:
http://www.oconeecountyobservations.org/2016/08/expenses-for-mars-hill-road-work.html
SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2016
Expenses For Mars Hill Road Work Mislabeled In Presentation To Public On Request Of Oconee County Commission Chairman
8) Mr. Davis' tenure as commission chair is finished in a few months. Clearly, the prudent course of action is for Mr. Davis to let the 2017 commission, with a new commission chair and another new commissioner, to decide how to move forward with this matter. Do the right thing.
Dan Magee
Unincorporated Oconee County
Dan,
No one can purchase sewage capacity until the land is zoned for a use requiring it. Allocation of capacity is part of the rezoning process. Dickens has indicated he plans to ask for sewage capacity.
The county enforces the no trucks provision on its roads, but it cannot enforce it on a state route, which Mars Hill Road is at present.
Anonymous,
The county did agree to pay Dickens more than the initial assessed value of his property for what is now Oconee Veterans Park.
Lee
There is another reason that OC should not want the road turned back over to the county after construction. That is that then OC would be responsible for maintenance and improvements to this roadway. Maintaining this improved road would be many times more expensive than the two-lane road it replaces.
Let GDOT keep it and maintain it.
Since the state has the road until it is finished at least, there is no plan B possible. I hope they don't pull the "but someone promised Mr. Dickens" line again after Melvin goes out of office. Must be nice to be on a first name basis with the commissioners to get benefits from we the taxpayers. Wonder whose money they think they are playing with.
Yep, in 2002, Doug dickens received a $2,940,000 agreement from Melvin for the veteran's park land when the independent appraiser hired by the county (more $$$ spent)found the value to be $1,822,800. Melvin "believed" that Dickens property was worth $15,000 per acre? Real estate appraisers exist to find property value derived from recent comparable sales WITHOUT influence such as 'nostalgic' value or 'beliefs'; anyone can "believe" anything they want, but comparable sales are documented fact. The property is actually 2.5 miles from Butler's Crossing, a bit more than 1.1 miles or "a stone's throw". And, of course, additional personnel had to be and was hired. http://onlineathens.com/stories/090302/new_20020903028.shtml#.V9FSwjVWI8I
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