JILL SCHRAMM/MDN Vehicles travel south on the unpaved Sunset Boulevard last January.

A change of plans by a developer has removed the City of Minot from involvement in paving a stretch of gravel road in northwest Minot. Meanwhile, for those residents who use the roadway and would like to see it paved, the wait will continue.

Last January, Mark Whitman, who is looking to commercially develop about 65 acres of land south of 21st Avenue Northwest and east of the U.S. 83 Bypass, had asked the Minot City Council to pave the short, graveled section of Sunset Boulevard next to his property.

The city’s practice has been to require developers to install streets in their proposed subdivisions. However, the council had agreed to pursue the idea of working with the developer on paving, but any decision to proceed would hinge on finding $1.8 million to cover the estimated cost.

Recently, Whitman indicated he will develop the property in smaller sections at a slower pace, City Engineer Lance Meyer said.

“It’s going to be done in phases over time,” he said, adding that the timeframe isn’t known. “But as kind of a starting off point, they’re looking at just developing probably the first 150 feet or so of Sunset and maybe a lot or two.

“They would take on the cost of developing that specific section of Sunset Boulevard,” he added. “It has to meet all of the city’s approved specifications and plans, and then once the inspections are done, we verify that all the testing and requirements are up to the city’s standards. Then the city will take over that section of roadway for ownership and maintenance.”

It could take some time to get to that point, though. The pace of development will depend on the market for commercial property in that part of Minot, Meyer said.

“He has a lot of commercial land up there, and at some point, we’ll need to make sure that storm water management studies are done and traffic studies are done so we know how that area must develop to fit in with the fabric of northwest Minot,” Meyer said.