Subdivision Paving Summit March 12, 2024

Subdivision Paving Summit
March 12, 2024, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Left Hand Grange, 195, 2nd Ave, Niwot

Subdivision Paving Coalition
www.niwot.org subdivisionpaving.org

 

Links

Comments gathered at the March 12 summit:

Here are the comments gathered from the meeting and follow-up emails.

  • Support politically the commissioners that support our needs.
  • It would seem there is no free lunch – at this point either the entire county chips in or only the subdivision owners.
  • Can county be held to competitive bids still meeting the county standards?
  • Given current property taxes, does it make sense to wait until 2025 or later to ask for the $? But right now ask cities and county to create a priority list of jobs.
  • County told us 7 years ago the cost to rebuild would be $2.0 to $2.2M. We have a 2023 bid from road contractor for $1.1M
  • Our roads are not properly maintained, but the county won’t give us a permit to do so. We are stuck with road deteriorating prematurely and then no mechanism to rebuild.
  • Can private citizen (i.e. volunteers on the commission) write grant for infrastructure funds the infrastructure account?
  • Come up with a county wide solution, increase road & bridge tax revenue to cover total county needs and offset by decreasing the city taxes for road & bridges.
  • As I listened to some of the comments at Tuesday’s meeting, I was wondering if everyone there understood the options we have to pay for rebuilding the roads in our subdivisions. Here are the ones I’ve identified:1. Do nothing.
    Pro: Doesn’t cost anything.
    Con: Roads will wear out creating safety issues and potentially bringing down property values.2. Seek a political solution:
    Pro: Could change the landscape.
    Con: Already tried and failed. The Colorado Supreme Court ruled in favor of BOCO’s decision not to fund rebuilding the roads in our subdivisions.

    3. Private funding by individual subdivisions through a PID or other funding mechanism.
    Pro: May be the quickest way to get an individual’s subdivision roads rebuilt.
    Con: Takes significant individual effort to accomplish. Probably the most costly of all options.

    4. Band together to form a special tax district for all subdivisions or for just those in Niwot.
    Pro: May get a quicker response by BOCO to individual subdivision needs. May be tax deductible.
    Con: Costly. But may cost an average of less than $1000 per household per year.

    5. Band together to approve a new transportation tax to cover road rebuilds.
    Pro: May be the cheapest of all options.
    Con: Unknown how quickly BOCO will address each subdivision’s needs. Probably not tax deductible.

    What contributed to the success of forming the PID to rebuild the roads in Burgundy Park was discussing each the options above in a series of meetings with homeowners in the subdivision. The majority then decided that paying what turned out to be an average of $850 per year per household was a better option than doing nothing or waiting for a more global solution.

    What may help some of those that were there on Tuesday is to understand why the best option, if they want their roads rebuilt, is to band together and to support either option #4 or option #5. They then need help individual homeowners in their subdivisions to understand why pursuing one of these two options is better than pursuing any of the others.