MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, Ala. — The town of Magnolia Springs now has an official procedure in place for applying for a street vacation.

During its regular meeting Tuesday, the Town Council voted to finalize the process, which included clarifying that an appraisal may be required in the proceedings and that copies of an appraisal could be required.

Those clarifications were preceded by discussions of the points, as previously drafted wording had indicated that providing an appraisal was to be submitted with the application. They were points town leaders had first discussed when reviewing a draft of the policy in the March Council workshop and agreed on those changes.

Tuesday, Councilman Jim May pointed out that the item up for consideration did not include those changes.

“We’re we going to make an appraisal optional?” he asked.

Upon further discussion, Council members agreed that while an appraisal would most likely be part of the street-vacation process, it should not be required just for an application.

“I’d hate for somebody to have to spend thousands of dollars just for an application,” Councilman Bob Holk said, adding that sometimes street-vacations wouldn’t go through for a variety of reasons.

The town’s first street-vacation was completed in October with the Council’s acceptance of the offered vacation fee of $15,000 from each co-applicant household, which consisted of James and Ann West, and Tim and Sandra Russell. That was five months after they voted in May to grant that request for the town to vacate a 20-by-40 foot portion of the street, contingent upon a fee for the transaction. In August, James West opposed the $56,000 appraisal the town received for the land. Then in September, town leaders considered consulting the Alabama Attorney General’s opinion of how to define the value of the land being vacated. Meanwhile, the applicants proposed paying a fee of $15,000 each, which the town agreed to last fall.