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MICHAEL SANDLERThe private 20th Avenue SE, off Starkey Road, turns public and will be repaved. Nine businesses along the avenue will pick up the tab.
LARGO - The dust is about to settle along a private road that has frustrated local businesses and county officials for decades.
The half-mile 20th Avenue SE, off Starkey Road and north of Ulmerton Road, was dedicated this week to the public and is scheduled to be paved by the county in the coming months.
Nine neighboring businesses will pay the improvement costs, estimated to be as high as $2.2-million.
CSX Transportation Inc., the owner of the property, agreed to make it public only after county officials stepped up warnings last year that dirt from the road posed an environmental hazard.
Until this year, the access road was covered with dirt. CSX paved it in recent months.
With daily convoys of commercial vehicles coming and going, neighboring businesses complained about swirling dust and expensive cleanup costs.
Ditek Inc., a small tech company just north of the road's entrance, had spent tens of thousands of dollars planting shrubs to block the dust and clean up the dirt.
Ditek does not face the road, so it will not face an assessment.
Bob Daugherty, an executive with the company, welcomed the news, yet wondered why the county was assessing his neighbors for a job he thought was complete.
"The problem has been abated somewhat," Daugherty said. "They put black top on it six months ago."
Charles Norwood, director of operations for the county's Public Works Department, said engineers must evaluate the conditions of the road, from the surface to the soil, before they can make it a public road.
They also have to consider drainage and other issues.
To be safe, his office has estimated spending $400 for every foot along the road. Businesses will pay based on their road frontage.
Norwood said paving would likely begin in about a year.
"We've got to believe we can do it for much less, but we have to be open and honest," Norwood said. "We don't know the characteristics out there."
Five businesses signed a petition agreeing to be assessed, Norwood said. County code requires 60 percent of the property owners to sign a petition authorizing the assessment; those businesses own nearly 65 percent of the property.
Two businesses have come forward to object, Norwood said.
Among them was CNF Realty, which owns about 5 acres and is paying three times as much as a neighbor owning 10 acres.
Don Mastry, an attorney for CNF Realty, said the assessment did not take into account property size, only frontage along the road.
Mastry wondered why the County Commission couldn't re-evaluate the formula and said his client will fight the assessment unless it is distributed differently.
"My client is not opposed to the paving," Mastry said. "(CNF Realty wants) just a more fair apportionment of the cost."
County Administrator Steve Spratt said the formula based on frontage has traditionally been the practice for assessing road improvements.
"There are a number of ways to approach these things," Spratt said. "Invariably, some are going to pay more than others."
- Michael Sandler can be reached at 445-4162 or sandler@sptimes.com