County Prepares Acquisition of Final Six Properties for Hazel Avenue Project

may not be slated to begin until spring of 2015, but, as Department of Transportation civil engineer and project manager Steve White explained, finalizing the aquisition of the remaining six properties along the roadway is a big step toward expediting the process.

"There have been offers and ongoing negotiations with these remaining six owners," White said. "We expect by the end of the calendar year to have posession of all six of those (properties)."

For those who have driven down Hazel Ave. lately, the demolition and construction along either side of that road might be difficult to miss. The facade is certainly different and seems to be continually changing. Expect that to continue as the aquisition of these properties is just another step toward implementing Phase Two of the expansion project.

White explained what comes next will be the partial acquisition of land in 56 properties from Curragh Downs all the way up to Sunset Ave. That land would likely include back, front and side yards, as well as frontage property along Hazel Ave., White said. Each partial acquisition of land could total as much as 12 square-feet, and as little as 5 square-feet. That part of the project is likely to begin as early as September 2012.

"We're not going to put a sidewalk one foot from somebody's back porch," White said. "If they still have a 15-, 20-foot backyard when we're done, that's still a viable parcel."

As was the case with aquiring the 42 properties, the partial acquisitions do come with some financial compensation and is determined by County Department of Real Estate program manager Dan Wukmir. 

The reason for the partial acquisitions deals with improving and retrofitting existing municipal underground piping that lines much of Hazel Ave., White said. SacDOT will work with SMUD on a design which may impact exactly the size of some of those properties, White said.

"When we have (the SMUD) design, we'll be ready to move forward with those partial acquisitions," White said.

In total the county was responsible for acquiring 42 homes along Hazel Ave. and finding suitable agreements with each of the homes owners.

The project is broken into three phases, not including relocating a SMUD substation that currently resides near Hazel Bridge. That aspect of the project could take SMUD workers as long as 12 months to accomplish.

Phase Three of the project won’t begin until 2016 or 2017, and will run along Hazel Avenue from Sunset to Madison avenues. This phase has 92 partial acquisitions, which won’t begin until all of the full acquisitions are complete in Phase Two.

Like on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Get Free Newsletter