A Penny's Concrete truck approaches the intersection of Queens Road and Overland Drive on Friday. People living just to the east of Queens will be facing new fees as the area west of Queens is developed. Currently an unpaved street, Queens Road will also be paved with the new development. Pictured in the distance at right is the new city water tower near St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, 5700 W. 6th St.

It is not the most interesting of reading.

Title reports, easements, plats, disclosure statements and a whole bunch of other documents written in a way that only lawyers who bill by the hour could love.

It’s the mass of documents that all new home buyers get shoved in front them as part of the closing process. You know the drill — sign here, here and here, and initial here and here — that goes on in the final moments before you tie yourself down to a 30-year mortgage and a new home.

“I haven’t read them yet, and I’ve been here a year,” Mary Tate said of the couple inches of paperwork that was part of buying her home in the 200 block of Campbell Drive.

She — and many of her neighbors along Queens Road in northwest Lawrence — may soon wish that they had. That’s because when hundreds of residents in the Westwood Hills and Park West neighborhoods bought their houses, they agreed — perhaps unknowingly — to help pay for the reconstruction of adjacent Queens Road.

The bottom line is that city commissioners — if they choose — can place all the properties in those two neighborhoods into a new benefit district that will help pay the estimated $3 million to $6 million to rebuild Queens Road north of Sixth Street. The city is estimating each lot in the neighborhoods could be charged about $3,000 to $6,000 to help pay for the road. The amount could be paid over 10 years as a special assessment on the owners’ property taxes.

In other words, the project could add $25 to $50 per month to the mortgage payments for the homes in the area.

“That doesn’t seem right,” said Pat Cardwell, who lives in Westwood Hills. “With housing prices falling, now isn’t the time to be charging more taxes.”

Here’s what happened: When developers of the two neighborhoods went through the city’s rezoning and platting process earlier this decade, they were required to sign documents called “agreements not to protest” the formation of a benefit district to improve Queens Road. Those agreements run with the land. In other words, the developers’ agreements have become the homeowners’ agreements, whether they knew it or not.

Calls to several homeowners in the two neighborhoods suggest many did not know about the agreements not to protest. About a half-dozen homeowners contacted by the Journal-World said the likelihood of a new benefit district was never pointed out to them during their buying process.

“I wasn’t aware of it, and that is probably my fault,” Tate said. “But I’m still not happy about it. Whenever you start talking about taxes, I think it should be pointed out.”

The information should be included in any standard title search, which is among the documents that homeowners receive at closing, said Greg Haehl, president of Lawrence’s Kansas Secured Title.

“But I would guess that there are not a lot of people who will realize what it means, and they’ll be caught off guard,” Haehl said. “That’s why it is important to go through all of it, and if they have questions about something that is showing up, they should call and ask about it.”

Attempts to reach Glen Westervelt — a developer of the Westwood Hills neighborhood — were not successful. It is not known what efforts Westervelt and other developers made to alert buyers of the pending benefit district.

City leaders haven’t yet finalized any plans for the road — which is now a gravel road along some stretches. But City Manager David Corliss said talk of improving the road likely will increase in 2009 as development plans on the west side of Queens Road move forward.

City Hall leaders said they are concerned that the financial issues will catch homeowners by surprise.

“This is some of that sprawl issue that we’ve talked about,” said Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works. “When the development gets out there before the infrastructure does, this can happen.”

Any plans for the road — and benefit districts to pay for it — will have to be approved by city commissioners. The agreements not to protest will prevent homeowners in the two neighborhoods from signing petitions that could legally stop the city from including their properties in the benefit district. But the agreements don’t limit the ability of homeowners to come to City Commission meetings and debate the project.

Some homeowners said that would be enough for them.

“It would have been nice to know a little bit more about this before I bought the house,” said Steve Johnson, who said he’s willing to pay his fair share for the road’s costs. “But one thing I’ve learned about Lawrence is nothing happens fast. I’m sure there will still be plenty of debate about it.”