Potential funding options for an estimated $12 million street improvement project in Sycamore are being considered by city council.

“We haven’t spent any money on the average residential streets since the early ’90s,” said 1st Ward Alderman Rich Neubauer. “We’ve let that go, and it certainly shows. We have a lot to make up for.”

Six possible funding alternatives were proposed during the Oct. 1 meeting. These include imposing a utility tax, implementing a transportation impact fee on new development, establishing special service areas and increasing the city’s home rule tax, property tax or telecommunication fee. City Manager Bill Nicklas said the council is open to additional suggestions and input.

“Someone suggested having a penny gas tax as another option,” Neubauer said. “There are quite a few communities in Illinois with a penny gas tax committed just to roads.”

Some options are favored more than others. Raising the city’s property taxes has been strongly opposed, Neubauer said. He said council members are leaning toward increasing the city’s home rule tax or placing a transportation impact fee on developers.

“The popular option seems to be making our sales tax match DeKalb,” Neubauer said. “For now I think it’s our best option. It would raise money in a relatively painless way and there would be no economic advantage to DeKalb retailers over Sycamore retailers.”

The current home rule tax in Sycamore is .75 percent versus DeKalb’s 1.25 percent. The increase would generate between $1.2 and $1.3 million in revenue annually for street repairs.

“The issue with the impact fee on developers is it won’t go into effect until our next annexation,” Neubauer said. “It will only provide future relief — not the relief we need right now.”

City Engineer John Brady will work with the city to comprise a list of the needed improvements. Brady said the list will be ready next year. Streets will be prioritized to determine which areas receive maintenance first.

“Once we decide on a funding option, we’ll be looking at streets with higher traffic counts and their current condition,” Brady said. “The worst ones with the most traffic will probably be first on our list of priorities.”

Citizen concern regarding the current state of the city’s residential streets has been widespread.

“I went and knocked on almost every door in the 1st Ward when I was campaigning,” Neubauer said. “The No. 1 issue besides growth was streets. People would ask me again and again, ‘What are you going to do about the sidewalks and streets?’ It’s a big priority for the people.”

Further discussion and a possible decision on the matter will take place during the next council meeting on Nov. 5.