LIVE OAK — County property owners may soon be able to pay the county to pave their road.

At a Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners meeting Tuesday, the board authorized its staff to look into establishing a Municipal Service Benefit Unit, which is a group of properties that share in the benefit and cost of the service provided.

The cost is determined by the size of the land which would benefit and the total number of parcels or dwellings benefiting from the project.

For example, if at least a majority of property owners along a dirt road become eligible for a MSBU, the county can pave the road and be paid back by the land owners in the form of taxes over a limited period of time.

The MSBU is not limited to paving roads, but it is a common practice in other counties, according to Randy Harris, county administrator.

“This is a very common practice throughout the state,” Harris said. “We have already had two requests for road improvements.”

The board seemed to be in favor of the establishing the policy, but struggled to agree on a set percent of property owners it would take to begin a MSBU. Commissioner Ronnie Richardson suggested 75 percent, while Ricky Gamble, chairman, said he could live with 60 percent.

Jimmy Prevatt, county attorney, said other counties required 10 percent of owners to apply and 51 percent of owners to agree to the MSBU. Gamble said that 60 percent would leave 40 percent of people with a tax bill they don’t want.

Harris said that he has done many of these types of projects before. He said there were projects that passed by one vote, but after the road was paved, he never heard a negative word about the project again.

He said the county might offend a few people, but it should also consider people suffering from the dusty road, who might be able to pay their fair share, but won’t be able to get a majority of land owners to agree if the county makes the percent too high.

The county might allow a small group of people to prevent a larger group from having their road paved, Harris said.

The board authorized Harris and Prevatt to draft a policy for the county to revisit at a later date.

Also during the meeting, representatives from the Florida Department of Transportation gave a project update. According to the presentation, the next FDOT project will be adding street lights from the end of the city limits on U.S. Highway 129 to Interstate 10.

Harris said that he was shocked by the presentation, because the county was awarded fewer road projects this year than usual.

“I’m just blown away by this DOT report,” Harris said.