Road Maintenance Agreement

[Mack Fleming]

Hello fellow BiggerPocket-ers!

I am in need of a Road Maintenance Agreement. If anyone out there has such an agreement they would like to share, it would be much appreciated.

If interested, here is a little more information on what this is about..

I do small residential developments in rural areas. The roads are private. Some are dirt and some are asphalt paving. As long as the lots are 3 acres or larger in size, the County does not regulate anything. However, if any of the lots are under 3 acres in size, the regulations state that there must be a 30' wide access/utility easement, and no more than 4 parcels may share an easement. (This makes things a little cumbersome.)

I would like to propose a variance to the County for this regulation. The reason for this particular regulation in the first place is that the County does not want to deal with folks complaining about road maintenance for what they think is a County Road. So, for smaller lots the County limits a private "road" to what is more like a private driveway. That way it doesn't appear to the public as something the County is responsible for maintaining.

My proposed variance would state, in effect, that if a private road is paved and has a Road Maintenance Agreement in place, an access/utility easement of 60' in width to a public road is required regardless of size or number of parcels.

I welcome any ideas on the best approach. I think I will first talk to the County Commissioner in my district, and then we meet with the County engineer. The County engineer is not easily swayed, by the way. According to how this goes, I will then set up a meeting with the County Commission.

Thank you!