(A) The City of Heath may, but is not obligated to, accept private streets into the public street and roadway system of the city upon conformance to the following provisions:
(1) A petition, signed by property owners representing at least 66-2/3% of the lots abutting a private street, must be submitted to the City Secretary. The petition shall be submitted on forms obtained from the City Secretary. In the alternative, the Board of Directors of the Homeowners Association (HOA) for the affected subdivision may submit a notice procedure to the affected property owners. The procedure must be submitted to the City Secretary and approved by the City Council prior to any acceptance;
(2) All of the infrastructure must be in a condition that is acceptable to the city;
(3) All security stations and other structures not consistent with a public street development must be removed or disabled;
(4) The City Council may require that monies in a homeowner association fund, designated for street maintenance, be delivered to the city. In the absence of a homeowners association and/or the fund, the Council may require the property owners to reimburse the city for any street maintenance provided during a period of time specified by the Council;
(5) The subdivision plat must be submitted as a re-plat dedicating the rights of way and other easement to the city; and
(6) Any and all homeowner association documents must be modified and re-filed to remove any specific reference to any private streets converted to public streets.
(B) For private streets that do not meet the requirements of divisions(A)(1) through (6) above, the following procedure may be considered by the City Council to accept the private streets:
(1) In order for the City Council to consider a petition requesting that the city take over ownership and maintenance of a private street under this section, the petition must be signed by a minimum of 80% of the property owners abutting the private street and must be submitted to the City Secretary. The petition shall be submitted on forms obtained from the City Secretary;
(2) The subdivision or properties would need to be either platted or replatted dedicating 100% of the right-of-way needed for the project including any additional utility easement needed for the improvements;
(3) The petition must request that the city finance, design, and construct a new street to city standards along with water and sanitary sewer lines (sewer if available in the area);
(4) The city would be responsible for 50% of the street paving design and construction cost, of the cost of water system upgrades relating to providing fire flow, and the city would be responsible for 0% of the sanitary sewer design and construction cost;
(5) The petitioners would be responsible for 50% of the street paving design and construction cost, 100% of the sanitary sewer design and construction cost, and 0% of the water line improvement cost;
(6) Should the City Council agree to the proposed project, the city would have up to 24 months to begin construction in order to allow time for budgeting and design of the project;
(7) The project may be financed for up to 20 years with reimbursement collected from each property owner. Financing and payback will be determined at the time of the application and construction of the improvements. City may enter into an agreement with property owners on a form approved by the city which shall identify the estimated cost of the improvement or expansion, the schedule for initiation and completion of the improvement or expansion, a requirement that the improvement or expansion be designed and completed to city standards and any other terms and conditions as deemed necessary by the city. The agreement shall provide for the method to be used to determine the amount of the reimbursement by the property owner for construction of the improvements or expansion in accordance with this section;
(8) The city may finance the project through the issuance of bonds or through any other authorized mechanism, in such manner and subject to such limitations as may be provided by law; and
(9) Nothing in this section shall be deemed in any way to be an exclusive method of enforcing the payment of the costs against the property owner, and shall not be deemed in any manner to be a waiver of the city's right to validly assess the property owners concerned for costs of the installation of improvements or expansion and to fix and enforce liens against the properties, all of which may be done as provided herein in the manner allowed by law. The liens are security for the expenditures made and interest accruing as allowed by law.
(C) Upon certification of the requisite number of signatures on the petition by the City Secretary, if such is presented in accordance with division (A)(1) above, the City Council shall consider the petition at its first available meeting upon due notice being given to the HOA.
(2005 Code, § 13-1-23) (Ord. passed 4-21-2005; Ord. 050421C, passed - -2005; Ord. 050818, passed - -2005; Ord. 060302, passed 3-2-2006; Ord. 151110E, passed 11-10-2015; Ord. 170328-B, passed 3-28-2017)