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__.. ~l River REQUEST FOR ACTION To Ci Council Item Number 7.2. Agenda Section Administration Meeting Date une 18, 2007 Prepared by Lori ohnson, Ci Administrator Item Description Reviewed by ond to Request fox City to Take Over Private Roads Res p Reviewed by Action Reauested The Council is asked to respond to a citizen request that the City take over private roads. Background/Discussion At the May 10`h woxksession, the Council discussed private roads in response to a request from atown- home pxoperry owner that the Ciry take over the private roads within the townhome development. At the woxksession, 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. We 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 axe 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 woxksession, there axe 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 Phil 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 fox that route, would need to be added to cover S:\Council\Lori\2007\Private Roads decision requestcd OG ]8 07.doc