Residential Road Maintenance

Niwot Community Association Alert
January 23, 2010

Overview
Last Spring the NCA sent out an Alert concerning the maintenance of local access roads which serve most subdivisions and other developments in Unincorporated Boulder County. For the last 15 years there has been a little known and even less understood policy that the County would "maintain" the roads which includes snow plowing and pothole repair but that the funding to "rehabilitate" (i.e. resurface) was the responsibility of the users, specifically the residents who use these roads to access their homes. After 15 plus years of neglect many of our local access roads are rapidly deteriorating. The severe winter we are experiencing will only accelerate this deterioration. In the past, when the County Commissioners have been approached about the problem they either cited the policy in the Comprehensive Plan or said there was no money available.

Recognizing a growing problem, George Gerstle, the current Director of the Boulder County Department of Transportation solicited participation on a Working Group comprised of representatives from various HOAs and neighborhood groups. While a large number of groups were contacted the Working Group was relatively small. It has met a total of three times during the Fall. Based upon road surface measurements taken during the summer, the County Staff estimates that $ 21.7 M would be required to resurface subdivision roads. One funding approach would be assign a tax or fee increase of $2035 ($405/year for 5 years) to the 10,674 parcels using local access roads within subdivisions. Another $ 6.7 M would be required for non-subdivision local access roads. A discussion of specific funding mechanisms is beyond the scope of this brief Alert, but it is sufficient to say that most residents in unincorporated Boulder County would be seriously affected.

The position of the NCA is that Boulder County should both "maintain" and "rehabilitate" all local access roads as integral part of the County's transportation system. Maintaining the public infrastructure should be among the highest budget priorities in the County. As both primary and local access roads have been under funded for years, this issue should be addressed as a county wide problem.


Meetings
The NCA will provide additional information on this issue in the near future with guidance as to how you can express any concerns you have to the County Commissioners.

An informational meeting will be hosted by the County Department of Transportation on January 26th from 5:30 - 6:30 pm in the Commissioner's Hearing Room on the 3rd Floor of the County Courthouse, located at 13 th St. and the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder. Interested residents of Niwot and Boulder County are encouraged to attend.

Discussion See Residential Road Maintenance Discussion on this site.