An extremely truncated section of Oak Harbor’s SW Bayshore Drive, that ends abruptly behind Whidbey Island Bank, may be one step closer to finally being extended.

The owners of property in the area have presented a request to the city to form a local improvement district, or LID, to build the section of the road. If built, it would extend 920 feet from behind the bank, 7-Eleven, Burger King and the car wash, hooking up with Beeksma Drive.

David Wilson of Woody’s Car Wash and Arnold Freund own the parcels that would be on the north end of the street. The city of Oak Harbor owns the property south of the proposed street extension.

A LID is a specific geographical district formed by a group of property owners working together to build infrastructure or utilities. Under the proposed LID, the city would pay for half of the cost of the road because it owns half the property along the road.

The cost of engineering and constructing the road was previously estimated at $555,000.

Last year, the city, the Freund family and the restaurant company Bob’s Burgers and Brew worked out a preliminary agreement to finance the road construction, but the deal fell through. Bob’s Burgers had wanted to build a restaurant on an empty parcel near Whidbey Island Bank.

If the LID goes forward, the city will end up paying slightly more of the road-construction cost than under the previous agreement.

The road project has been on the city’s comprehensive plan transportation element map for more than 10 years. The money for the work is already in the 2007-2008 budget.

At the last council meeting, the council members decided to consider the resolution of intent to form the LID at a future meeting, which is a step forward in the process.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.