Red Feather PAC sets open house on road issues

By Stephen Clearheart Johnson
North Forty News

Red Feather Lakes residents and property owners will have an opportunity to weigh in on how to deal with a variety of road issues, from maintenance to legal surveys.

The Red Feather Lakes Planning Advisory Committee will host an open house to present the findings and recommendations of the road committee at 7 p.m. on July 21 at the POA Building, 58 Firehouse Lane.

The road committee, chaired by Bill Gilbert, has developed a plan to have certain road segments declared public roads.

"There are huge road issues up here, and nobody knows how to answer them," Gilbert said. "What the committee has tried to do is a find a way to answer them."

Many of the PAC members believe that such a plan could solve many existing problems related to road and property issues. As a byproduct, it may benefit future development by providing a right of way for utilities such as water, sewer and electricity.

If sufficient community support develops, the PAC will recommend to the Larimer County Commissioners to designate these roads as public roads. The roads would then be surveyed using a GPS-demarcated centerline, which would fix in place the legal position of the roads. The plan names road segments that link Prairie Divide Road to Dowdy Lake Road and some main north-south connections.

Much of the open house will be devoted to education about what the committee has discovered, said Ted Carter, president of the PAC. "We don't really have roads up here," Carter said. "We have traveled ways."

Most drivers are familiar with this phrase only to the point of knowing that a parked or disabled vehicle blocking the traveled way will be ticketed and towed.

The roads under discussion are private roads within the unincorporated village. Some of the segments were originally platted and described as public roads when the village was laid out but were never surveyed and legally dedicated as public roads. Some of the roads were not built where intended. Some road segments have been moved over time as their use changed.

The road issues are further complicated by the fact that the original surveys suffered from inaccurate base lines that were later corrected for new surveys. This has resulted in many property line and road location disputes. Elizabeth Clark, who owns a cabin built by her grandfather in 1947, presented a typical example to the PAC in June. Her neighbor is attempting to move the road onto her property, claiming a more accurate survey.

Defining the roads as public with a legally defined centerline could settle such disputes easily. PAC member Lucille Schmitt of Ponderosa Realty has seen many instances of dueling surveys and differing perceptions of property rights. "I can't tell you how many years as a Realtor I've been asked nebulous questions and can only give nebulous answers," she said.

Gilbert is quick to point out that designating these roads as public would not lead to county maintenance of them. Maintenance is a problem the committee has not yet addressed, although there remains the potential that the property owners could vote to create a road tax district similar to the one that maintains the Hiawatha Highway.

The PAC is a group of 13 community leaders appointed by the county commissioners to advise on land use planning, zoning and other community issues. Among other achievements, the PAC developed the Red Feather Lakes Area Plan, which can be viewed online at www.larimer.org/redfeather.

Working intensely on this issue since January, the road committee has consulted with the county attorney and the county engineering and planning departments. County Commissioner Kathay Rennels, who frequently attends the PAC meetings as a guest, noted that this is a PAC-initiated plan, not one started by the county.