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7.1. SR 06-18-2007 REQUEST FOR ACTION To Ci Council Agenda Section Administration Item Description Respond to Request for City to Take Over Private Roads Meeting Date une 18, 2007 Administrator Reviewed by Action Requested The Council is asked to respond to a citizen request that the City take over private roads. Background/Discussion At the May 10'" worksession, the Council discussed private roads in response to a request from a town- home property owner that the City take over the private roads within the townhome development. At the worksession, Street Superintendent Phil Hals and I gave the Council some preliminary information about private roads along with a general overview of the costs and other issues associated with taking over private roads, many of which basically function as driveways. \Y.J e indicated that there were several issues outside of just the cost that the Council needed to take into consideration prior to making a decision. At that meeting, staff requested that the Council authorize funds to install new street signs that clearly indicate which streets are private streets; the Council concurred and those signs are now being installed. The Council further directed staff to research the issue in more detail and report back to the Council. Again, as we stated at the last worksession, there are numerous items related to taking over private roads. The issues fall under three main categories. The most obvious issue is the cost for on-going maintenance and replacement at the end of the useful life of the roads. The standards to which the streets were built is another issue. Third is the ownership of the property under the road and the need to convey that property, along with adequate right-of-way, to the City before the City could take over the street. Since costs are the main issue, I will address that first. The costs break down into two categories; on- going maintenance and reconstruction. On-going maintenance includes signage, snow plowing, seal coating, crack filling, pot hole repair, sweeping, and striping. On gravel roads it includes grading, signage, snow plowing, and maintaining a good gravel base. Attached is a memo from Street Superintendent Pbi! Hals outlining some of the costs associated with the maintenance and the reconstruction of the private roads. The width of the private roads is much narrower than city streets so a specialized piece of equipment with a cost of approximately $175,000 would need to be purchased to do snow plowing. In addition, because of the layout of the streets and driveways, this would be a much more labor-intensive operation than plowing public streets. Staff estimates that it would take two times the normal time because of snow storage, street width, and other issues. An additional snowplow route, and driver for that route, would need to be added to cover plowing the private streets. This does not take into consideration plowing the narrow 12 ro 14 foot wide S:\Council\Lori\2007\Privatc Roads decision requested 0618 07.doc drives that lead from the private roads to the individual driveways. Mr. Hals estimates that those would double the private road mileage in townhome developments from 3.7 to over seven miles. Mr. Hals' memo provides estimates for other costs including $15,000 per mile for seal coating and $200,000 per mile for an overlay. Second, because these roads were not constructed as city streets, they often do not have sidewalks, access points do not meet city guidelines, and they are built to different standards than city streets. They are not as wide, do not have the same design and construction standards, and were not inspected by city staff during construction to ensure quality construction. Therefore, some of the private roads may have substandard construction which would require more maintenance and possibly reconstruction earlier than normal. Some of the townhome developments are now at a point where the roads are nearing the end of their useful lives and will require more than just on going maintenance. One of the biggest variances from city standards is the width of these private roads; they are not as wide as city streets. At the time of development, the developers requested that the roads be private so that they could be narrower and not be required to meet access point standards. This allowed the developers to increase the density of the development. The City agreed with these requests on the condition that the associations include maintenance of the streets in the association documents and that they collect adequate funds through the association fees to maintain the roads. This put all property owners on notice that they were living on private roads that were the association's responsibility to maintain. Further, parking will be an issue because of the nature of parking needs in townhome developments and the streets not being built to standards that allow for parking. If these private roads become city streets, they will be subject to city parking regulations including snow plowing parking restrictions. Areas that currently allow parking may need to be signed for no parking because of emergency vehicle access or other safety concerns. Ims may be a problem in areas where there is limited off-street parking. Third, in order for the City to take over the private roads, ownership of the property under the street plus additional right-of-way on either side of the street would need to be conveyed to the city. The typical right-of-way for a minor street is 60 feet. Most of the townhome streets are around 22 to 26 feet wide with no right-of-way outside of the street; this 38 to 34 feet less than what the City typically requires for public streets in a residential area. If property owners are not willing to give additional right-of-way, the City would not be able to accept the streets. This additional right-of-way requirement would create lots that do not conform with our zoning requirements which is another issue that would need to be addressed. In conclusion, when property owners purchased property on these private roads in townhome developments, they would have been made aware through the association documents that they were buying property on a private road and that they would be required to bear the cost for maintaining and iroproving the roads. The commercial properties on private roads are siruilar to townhomes in that there is an association type of arrangement where fees are collected and maintenance of the common property is done through the association or management company. The request that the City now take over those private roads is more complex than it seems. The cost to take over the approximately seven miles (excluding drives in townhome developments) of private roads is substantial with no additional revenue source to fund the added expense, the standards to which they were built are far below City requirements, land for the streets and associated right-of-way must be freely conveyed to the City, and parking, zoning, and other related issues would need to be addressed. For those reasons listed above, staff recommends that the City not take over existing private roads. If the Council does want to take over these roads, an S:\Counci1\Lori\2007\Private Roads decision requested 06 18 07.doc option would be to have the associations repair the streets as directed by the city engineer so they are in good condition before they are conveyed to the City, transfer the balance of association fees collected for road costs to the City, complete, at the associations' cost, all of the necessary surveying and legal documents to convey the street property including rights-of-way, and fund the specialized equipment needed for snow plowing. Financial Impact . A minimum up front cost of approximately $175,000 to purchase a special piece of equipment for snow plowing . Cost to hire an additional maintenance two operator for the additional snow plow route (approximately $60,000 per year including benefits) . Seal coat, crack filling, striping, pot hole repair, and overlay costs as identified in the attached memo . Normal on-going street maintenance costs for sweeping, signage, and etc. Attachments . Memo from Street Superintendent, Phil Hals Action Motion by _ Second by _ Vote Follow Up S:\Council\Lori\2007\Private Roads decision requested 0618 07.doc MEMORANDUM TO: Lori Johnson, City Administrator FROM: Phil Hals, Street Superintendent DATE: June 4, 2007 SUBJECT: Issues Regarding City Assuming Ownership and Maintenance Of Private Roads Background: The City has approximately 3.7 miles of private roads in town home developments. This total does not include driveways between garages. The City has approximately 3.2 miles of private roads that are rural in nature with a a gravel surface. The City has approximately .5 miles of private roads that access cotntnercia! establishments. Issues that should be considered if the City were to agree to assume ownership and maintenance of these roads: . Do the materials and construction practices meet mininlUm City specifications? Does the City assume private underground utilities that ate located under these private roads? Does the City assume the town home development roads or the driveways as well? . . Costs to be considered: . Constructing and paving a gravel road per mile $250,000. Overlaying a private road in the cotntnercia! zone $200,000. Sealcoating town home roads $15,000 per mile. Snowplowing would require the purchase of a specialized piece of equipment for the cost of approximately $175,000 because of the narrower width and lack of snow storage. This vehicle would be dedicated to plowing town home developments. One additional operator would be needed for the winter season or 30% of FTE. . . .