Lansing Ave Makeover Cancelled after Pushback

• Video shows stretch of planned reconstruction, local businesses and business owners.
• Lansing Avenue property owners pushed back hard against the City of Jackson's plans for a $3.7M makeover that would have meant sizable special assessments.
• City Council voted Tuesday not to proceed.
• Federal funds allocated to the project will be returned.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

Controversy over assessments to fund a reconstruction project here on Lansing Avenue that has now been voted down by City Council. I was back in the area to hear how local businesses are reacting.

"We would have been shut down…probably," says Barb Decker, Owner of International Dog House.

Her business was one of several in this area that could have been hit hard by a proposed reconstruction plan.

It would have businesses facing special assessments totaling about $450,000 to access federal funds for a $3.7 million dollar construction project.

Decker's business alone would have seen a special assessment of $34,000.

"They're not doing anything here to the road," says Decker. "Well, maybe they'll be paving it or patching holes…I don't know, but we don't have to worry."

The reconstruction plan met with stiff resistance from local property owners. Many signed a petition forcing the Council to muster a supermajority to pass the reconstruction plan.

In the end, City Council voted against the measure 4-3.

Jack Tavioli, Owner of Cork 'n Cap, says: "I would like to see the project done."

Local property owners I talked to Wednesday acknowledged that their street needs repair. But they want to see something cheaper and less disruptive.

"I think the businesses here are going to have to deal with the hardship of that…and then putting an assessment on top of that just makes it untenable," says Tavioli.

The City will now have to return Federal grant money allocated for the project and decide, what, if any, repairs can be done at lower cost.

Says Tavioli: "I hope they sharpen their pencils and come up with another plan."

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