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<br /> <br />REQUEST FOR ACTION <br /> <br />To <br />Ci Council <br />Agenda Section <br /> <br />Administration <br />Item Description <br /> <br />Respond to Request for City to Take Over Private Roads <br /> <br />Meeting Date <br />une 18, 2007 <br /> <br /> <br />Administrator <br /> <br />Reviewed by <br /> <br />Action Requested <br /> <br />The Council is asked to respond to a citizen request that the City take over private roads. <br /> <br />Background/Discussion <br />At the May 10'" worksession, the Council discussed private roads in response to a request from a town- <br />home property owner that the City take over the private roads within the townhome development. At <br />the worksession, Street Superintendent Phil Hals and I gave the Council some preliminary information <br />about private roads along with a general overview of the costs and other issues associated with taking <br />over private roads, many of which basically function as driveways. \Y.J e indicated that there were several <br />issues outside of just the cost that the Council needed to take into consideration prior to making a <br />decision. At that meeting, staff requested that the Council authorize funds to install new street signs that <br />clearly indicate which streets are private streets; the Council concurred and those signs are now being <br />installed. The Council further directed staff to research the issue in more detail and report back to the <br />Council. <br /> <br />Again, as we stated at the last worksession, there are numerous items related to taking over private roads. <br />The issues fall under three main categories. The most obvious issue is the cost for on-going maintenance <br />and replacement at the end of the useful life of the roads. The standards to which the streets were built is <br />another issue. Third is the ownership of the property under the road and the need to convey that <br />property, along with adequate right-of-way, to the City before the City could take over the street. <br /> <br />Since costs are the main issue, I will address that first. The costs break down into two categories; on- <br />going maintenance and reconstruction. On-going maintenance includes signage, snow plowing, seal <br />coating, crack filling, pot hole repair, sweeping, and striping. On gravel roads it includes grading, signage, <br />snow plowing, and maintaining a good gravel base. <br /> <br />Attached is a memo from Street Superintendent Pbi! Hals outlining some of the costs associated with the <br />maintenance and the reconstruction of the private roads. The width of the private roads is much <br />narrower than city streets so a specialized piece of equipment with a cost of approximately $175,000 <br />would need to be purchased to do snow plowing. In addition, because of the layout of the streets and <br />driveways, this would be a much more labor-intensive operation than plowing public streets. Staff <br />estimates that it would take two times the normal time because of snow storage, street width, and other <br />issues. An additional snowplow route, and driver for that route, would need to be added to cover <br />plowing the private streets. This does not take into consideration plowing the narrow 12 ro 14 foot wide <br /> <br />S:\Council\Lori\2007\Privatc Roads decision requested 0618 07.doc <br />