Road issues part of planning puzzle in Red Feather Lakes

By Linda Bell
Correspondent

Red Feather Lakes Planning Advisory Committee members in December grappled with the jumbled jurisdiction of the area's roads as platted in the 1920s, sometimes without regard to geography and long before rules governing dust suppression, residential setbacks and minimum width and grade standards were put in place.

While county roads serve the village as main arterials, private roads with public access, easement roads and, in one instance, a USDA Forest Service road serve residential lots.

In the west half of the village, a sometimes contentious road improvement district is paid through property taxes with some oversight for liability and maintenance by the county. The district primarily maintains an east-west link between the two north-south county arterials. Residential private roads in the east half of the planning area are maintained informally by ad hoc committees of one or more citizens, or not at all.

The newer subdivision of Fox Acres is the one exception to public access on private roads within the planning area. Those roads are maintained by the gated community for their residents and were required by the county to meet standards for emergency vehicular access and dust suppression.

"We need to conform the roads legally to their actual placement," noted Gene Barker, PAC member and for many years the area's main contractor for roads. He said some platted roads were supposed to go over or through rock piles.

"The county should just accept the present locations of the roads and not require complicated variances to rectify what is already obvious," he said.

PAC member Lucille Schmidt, owner of Ponderosa Realty, noted that roads in Red Feather Lakes migrate over time, and property owners who want to sell or add on sometimes have to pay for expensive county variances when the plat shows the roads are not in the right places.

County road engineer Mark Peterson acknowledged that existing conditions in the village are not a blank slate and the county needs to work around the existing situation. On the other hand, he pointed out Main Street, where most commercial development is clustered, as an example of a private road with public access that exceeds minimum EPA standards for dust. It also does not have adequate storm drainage, parking facilities, handicapped accessibility or pedestrian walkways.

Larry Timm, county planning director, said that, as with water, roads are another linkage to growth issues. If increased traffic triggers EPA regulations governing fugitive dust, the county could deny any new development, he said.

Ross Reid, PAC member and year-round resident, said the community needs some kind of equitable system for road maintenance on all private roads in the village. He added that roads need to be classified by type to determine which minimum standards might apply to accommodate traffic requirements and emergency vehicles.

Quantifying that idea, PAC member Dennis Frydendall said the community should conduct traffic counts during the summer months.

Nancy Wallace, a lawyer serving on the county planning commission, said the community needs something in writing governing responsibility for all the private roads.

Reid said one of the outcomes he would like to see is some kind of comprehensive community district for road maintenance. Timm added that there needs to be an organizational structure for the entire community, not just the PAC, to come together to make these decisions on how to move forward on various proposals suggested by the PAC.

The next PAC meeting will be Jan. 12 at 1:30 p.m. in the POA building. The PAC will be discussing all issues pertaining to growth in the community.