PRESCOTT – A public hearing will be scheduled for some time in January for an amendment to the City of Prescott’s Comprehensive Plan to note the new location of a planned north-south roadway, members of the Prescott Plan Commission learned at their meeting Monday night, Nov. 7.

Developers of the Great Rivers Subdivision told planners in May that the originally platted east corridor, which ran from Hollister Road to the north along what is now Sea Wing Boulevard, would restrict development. Great Rivers has planned a third phase of 49 homes in the development.

Engineers from Cedar Corp. also predicted that route could cost $11-$15 million to build, because a 100-foot-high bridge would need to be built to traverse a large ravine.

A new roadway will now be considered located to the east of the original route, just east of 1242nd Street at a cost of about $4.5 million.

Changing the route means the transportation chapter in the Comprehensive Plan needs to be updated.

“The amendment will include the updated route location east of 1242

nd

Street, circumventing the need for a large-scale bridge. The route will still accommodate for North-South movement of traffic,” a memo from Cedar Corp. states.

Josh Miller of Cedar Corp. said that property owners affected by the new roadway will be notified about the public hearing from the plan update when the date is set, and the city will provide notice of the hearing in the Pierce County Journal and on its website.

At some point, the city may also need to officially map the proposed route, but that isn’t being done at this time. Mapping the route will require subdivision developments that happen along the route to allocate land for road right of way. The city has officially mapped the north end of the arterial road, which runs through the city’s Eagle Ridge Business Park from Highway 10 to meet up with Highway 29 at County Road F.

Plan commission member David Hovel suggested also that the city at some point investigate a capital cost fee that could be assessed on new developments because the new subdivisions require the city to add to its infrastructure.

“The developers would help pay for the roads,” he said. “I don’t think the taxpayers should have to pay the whole thing.”

City Administrator Matt Wolf said he would get in touch with a nearby city that has such a fee in place.

The public hearing to update the Comprehensive Plan will be held before the plan commission, which then would pass a resolution in support of it. The city council would then vote on an ordinance to support the change.