Street project sticker shock felt

Potential assessments for mill and overlay work through St. Paul are prompting objections from residents, including those who live in part of St. Anthony Park. 

More than a dozen people turned out for a St. Paul City Council public hearing on July 26, 2023 on upcoming projects, with many more sending letters of objection. While the council approved moving forward four arterial street project and two neighborhood mill and overlay projects, council members asked that the actual costs and cost-sharing decision be brought back before final bills are sent out.

Council members are unhappy that they didn’t get a say in the policy as to how rates were set. They asked that rates be discussed with them before final decisions are made. While the city cannot bill for work until a project is completed, estimates are sent to property owners before projects are approved. The estimates sent out, some of which reach several thousand dollars, are causing some sticker shock.

Arterial streets targeted for work this year are in Highland, Summit-University and Greater East Side neighborhoods. A fifth arterial street project, Front Avenue, was dropped.

Neighborhood-scale projects are in St. Anthony Park and Highland. The neighborhood project are two of the city’s first street reconstruction projects under its past sewer separation and street reconstruction project, which ended in 1996. Those streets in the Como-Valentine and Cretin-Bayard neighborhoods now need resurfacing.

Most people objected to high costs, and, in the case of arterial streets, why the benefits of work aren’t spread out citywide. Valentine Avenue residents brought in a unique concern about their street.

Gail Brinkmeier and other neighbors said Valentine is treated as an arterial street, even though it is a very narrow east-west residential street. Her family has owned their home there since 1968.

She said Valentine was a quiet street until about 2008. “There was a huge, significant change for smartphones and GPS,” said Brinkmeier. Valentine has become a major cut-through for traffic coming off of Highway 280. Even though it is not a truck route and is posted as such, large trucks constantly roll up and down the narrow street. Neighbors want a turn ban and other measures to reduce cut-through traffic.

The work on all project streets consists of milling off the top few inches of street surface and laying new bituminous material. Streets also get new curb ramps that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Some streets are getting corner bumpouts and small pedestrian refuge medians.

St. Paul’s street needs outpace available funding, said Nick Peterson of the St. Paul Department of Public Works. The current street cycle is that neighborhood streets may not be rebuilt for 124 years. Mill and overlay work can extend the life of a street surface.

Because of legal challenges to the city’s old right-of-way maintenance assessments, the city must carefully look at how it assesses property owners. A “special benefit” to the property owner must be determined. The estimated market value increase after the work is done is estimated at 1 to 1.5 percent.

Council members said they are concerned about what they see as high assessments, reaching several thousand dollars in many cases. They’re also concerned that the policy used by city staff wasn’t brought to the council for approval.

Public Works Director Sean Kershaw said the July 26 vote only authorizes projects to go forward, not to set the rates. He said the rates can be reviewed with the council before a final vote.