LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Lubbock City Council will reconsider a plan allowing neighborhoods to request alley improvements after members failed to reach a decision Tuesday.
The council gave initial approval last month to a petition program that would let residents on a street block gather signatures to request the work. A majority of homeowners would need to sign on.
The original plan called for property owners to cover the full expense. But Assistant City Manager Erik Rejino later discovered a state statute caps the homeowner share at 90 percent, requiring the city to pay the remainder.
Mayor Mark McBrayer addressed concerns Tuesday about costs falling on residents who oppose the work. He said homeowners could pay the debt over one year or have a lien placed on their property.
“If the person just says, ‘I don’t want to pay it at all,’ my understanding is then the lien would go on the property, and that lien would be paid again when the property is transferred through a sale or something else,” McBrayer said. “The person actually if they don’t want it, they’re still going to get it paved if they’re in that third. It would still be paved. They wouldn’t have to actually pay anything. When they sold the house, that’s when the money would be collected, at that point, paid by the person purchasing the property.”
The council will revisit the measure June 9.
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