A number of downtown property owners rebuffed the City Council’s initial request for more funding for the Winslow Way reconstruction project, and city officials have gone back to the drawing board to confirm the facts and finances of the project’s current scope.

The council had asked property owners to share some of the potential contingency costs for hazardous materials cleanup.

Deputy Planning Director Chris Wierzbicki requested that the council allow until the first study session in May before revisiting the project, so all the numbers on the utility replacement can be confirmed.

With the property owner’s reluctance to pay for potential cleanup costs, the city’s general fund may have to assume that responsibility, a notion several councilors bristled at. The alternative, Wierzbicki said, was to do the riskiest part of the project first, and adjust the remainder of the scope of the repair as it progresses based on how much of the contingencies needed to be used.

Last week, the council suggested asking the 11 property owners, who volunteered for a $1 million local improvement district for putting power lines underground, to help pay for contingencies on the project, should harmful materials be found.

Six of the 11 property owners convened this week and agreed that it wasn’t their responsibility to pay for clean up of materials they didn’t release into the ground.

“On the face of it, it seems highly unusual that 11 individuals would be asked to assume risk for work being done on public property by a city-sponsored project,” Tom Haggar wrote in a letter to the city on behalf of the property owners. “The street in question is a major corridor to and from the ferry for the entire southern part of the island. Why should eleven individuals assume that risk? Only a fraction of that traffic is accessing our 11 properties.”

The letter does not represent the final position of the property owners because they all haven’t had a chance to discuss the options together.

Mayor Bob Scales said talks with the property owners weren’t finished, they had just begun.

“I don’t consider the negotiations with the property owners to be concluded,” he said. “I think we’ve started that discussion, I don’t think we’ve concluded it.”

Councilor Barry Peters felt the council got its answer from the property owners, and it should move on with the preferred option. The project is not going to benefit just the property owners, he said. Everyone will share the benefits, so others should share the cost as well.

“To me this project is about repairing broken infrastructure and improving the health of the Puget Sound. To me that’s a problem for all of us to share.”

The city will continue working on the alternative chosen by the council at a meeting last week.

That version of the project eliminates work west of Madison Avenue and removes the concept of putting power lines underground.

The property owners have agreed to allow the LID money to cover other costs of the project, most likely the sewer component, instead of moving power lines underground.

The current option eliminates the entire remaining obligation for the sewer ($1 million in the Capital Improvement Plan), while slashing nearly $200,000 from the water utility’s portion ($780,000 from $946,529). This alternative lowers the remaining project cost from $8 million to approximately $5.5 million. State and federal grants would pay for $3.1 million of that.

This alternative, which the council chose as its working possibility going forward, also forfeits $866,000 in federal grant money for Wing Point Way reconstruction, which was moved to the Winslow Way project. That money will go back into a federal pot, and the city can re-apply for Wing Point Way money.

The contingency for cleanup represents the most unpredictable component of the project. As the cost of the project continued to dip, so did the amount for the state Transportation Improvement Board grant, as it is a function of the total project cost (28 percent). According to project documents, the general fund could be on the hook for $280,000 in contingency funds for cleanup that were previously obligated to the state grant, before the cost of the project decreased.

A number of councilors insisted they would not support the project going forward should the general fund be responsible for cleanup costs.

Wierzbicki suggested the city complete the portion between Madison and Ericksen Avenues first, so it can know how much contingency it would need to spend and could then remove some secondary features to avoid further general fund expenditure.

“We’re deconstructing the project,” he said.

Wierzbicki said he would prepare two options for the next discussion, one which eliminates any general fund obligations, and another that holds the fund responsible for some contingencies.

The continued removal of pieces of the project worried a number of councilors.

“I’m starting to feel very nervous that we’re deconstructing it to the point where we won’t be able to fix the issues,” said Councilor Kim Brackett.