The city of Columbus has joined forces with developers in the panhandle area to build a $2 million road connecting Garrett Road to Macon Road.
“We are trying to provide another way into that property without overburdening the road,” Rick Jones, director of the Planning Department, said Wednesday. “It’s going to help in the overall growth needs.”
Columbus Council has already signed off on the proposal. Using money from the new Local Option Sales Tax, the city will include the road construction in a list of public safety, roads and infrastructure projects totaling $91.5 million. Other projects in the first phase of bond projects include a new fire station, flood abatement, city service center and parking garage, natatorium, recycling and composting center and an ice rink.
The debt is expected to cost the city $6.2 million a year.
Garrett Road now runs south from County Line Road and cuts west at an angle just north of Pratt & Whitney before it stops at Lynch Road. The new road would run about one mile, taking an eastern route and stopping at Macon Road near Precision Components International, the manufacturer of engine blades and other aircraft parts.
In a partnership with developers J. Philip Thayer, Will Burgin and Willis, Jones said the developers will provide the right-of-way and pay for the engineering design costs of the project.
The city will be responsible for building the road, which is projected to run about 1 mile east from the current location of Garrett Road.
Jones said Burgin and Thayer are working to develop a planned unit development on the property in the area. No plan for a development is completed yet.
The city is trying to eliminate any additional access into the roadway from Macon Road. “We are trying to work with them on making that happen,” Jones said.
If funds are secured early next year, Jones said, the road construction could be under way during the summer.
Neither Burgin nor Thayer could be reached for comment Wednesday on the project.
Jones said the project is an opportunity to place a quality development in the area without impacting a stretch of Macon Road.
“I think it is a win-win situation,” Jones said.
E-Mail
Print
@Nyx.CommentBody@