Tangerine - Shannon Rd. News

Extension of Shannon Rd. to the South
 
The purpose of this blog is to inform you that the parish spent about $160,000 to extend Shannon Rd. south to intersect with the parish rectory driveway. The plan is to provide a third entrance/exit out of the south end of our parking lot to connect with Shannon Rd. by using the parish rectory driveway as the road bed. By taking advantage of the current Tangerine Rd. construction, we believe that our parish has realized substantial savings.
 
We took advantage of Oro Valley unit pricing 
During the construction of Tangerine Road, our parish had the opportunity of extending Shannon Road south to intersect the driveway going into the parish rectory. We discussed with the City of Oro Valley whether or not we could construct a third exit from our parking lot and use the driveway for our parishioners to exit to Shannon Rd., in effect a third way to exit or enter St. Mark Parish. The city informed us that such a plan would be acceptable to their planners. This project is desirable because motorists can turn right or left at the intersection of Shannon and Tangerine Roads. In addition, the city will eventually install a light at Shannon and Tangerine and will also extend Shannon to the south to connect to the rest of southbound Shannon Rd.
 
We saved $65,000
The first phase of this project was extending Shannon several hundred feet further south than the city had planned. Our finance committee and board of directors agreed that this was a good time to accomplish this project because the city would give us the same unit pricing they received to widen Tangerine Rd. Our construction adviser informed us that by following this plan at this time, we would save, a minimum, of $65,000 over present construction costs available to us if we were to hire our own contractor. Given that commercial construction costs are expected to rise 10-15% this coming year, this seemed like the time to accomplish this task.
 
We will receive credit in the future
We will receive dollar for dollar credit on impact fees that will be assessed against our parish in the future. Impact fees are generally incurred when attempting new construction in Oro Valley. Those fees are generally used to finance public improvements. As part of our arrangement with the City, Oro Valley agreed that they would give us a dollar-for-dollar credit against impact fees that we will incur when we decide to build a parish hall or meeting rooms on the west end of our property. We either pay now or we will pay later. It is cheaper now and so we went ahead and contracted with the city to extend Shannon.
 
Just keeping you informed.
 
Fr. John