Working hand-in-hand

Southridge residents are getting what they paid for with their extra real estate taxes and it’s making for smoother travel through the neighborhood.

The town-managed paving of nearly a mile’s worth of roads in the townhouse and apartment complex last week is also a great example of local government working hand-in-hand with its residents to affect positive change in a timely manner.

“It’s like a whole new world over here,” said Jan Watson, president of the Southridge Homeowners Association.

In late 2007, Town Council approved a special tax district in Southridge in which residents offered to pay 10 cents more in annual real estate taxes in exchange for the town taking over its road maintenance.

For most town residents, road maintenance is provided as part of their real estate taxes along with state funding from VDOT.

However, when developers began building Southridge on the town’s south side nearly two decades ago, the roads were not constructed to state standards, meaning the town was not required to maintain them because VDOT would not provide funding.

But after nearly 100 Southridge residents showed up at a council meeting in ’07 imploring the town to reconsider the arrangement and offering to pay, council agreed. A year and a half later, the town got it done.

According to Town Public Works Director Bobby Thornhill, the roads in Southridge had not been fully paved since the early ’80s when the development was built. The work was expected to finish up Monday.

Last week, town paving contractor Finley Asphalt of Manassas began the $145,000 job, laying down and smoothing about 1,990 tons of asphalt on Southridge’s four streets: Middleridge Drive, Cromwell Court, Ripplebrook Court and Bridlewood Drive.

The Southridge Homeowner’s Association put up about $20,000 in advance for the job, Thornhill said, and will pay off the balance through extra real estate taxes over the next five or six years.

The Southridge paving was included as part of the town’s annual paving contract with Finley, he added, and was able to be completed relatively quickly due to static asphalt costs.

“What we are finding with a lot of construction companies,” Thornhill said, “ is that they are cutting their labor costs and profit margins so they can stay in business.”

In the long run, he expected the Southridge special tax district designation would be a win-win for everyone involved. While the town put up some extra money at first, Thornhill said, once the initial paving is paid for, the extra taxes paid can then be banked and saved for future paving in Southridge.

Watson with the HOA said paying the extra real estate taxes was well worth it.

“Oh yes, because the roads out here had been very, very bad,” she said. “It was like a rollercoaster in some spots so this is a big improvement.”

Watson felt the brand-new roads would even help with home values in Southridge.

“We didn’t really expect it would get done this year because of the economy, but they went ahead and did it,” she said.