Below is what has previously been proposed
Should lower Tollgate Canyon Road and lower Forest Meadow Drive be financed and maintained by a Special Service District?:
The Pine Meadow Ranch Owners Association (PMROA) and other property owners within Tollgate Canyon have been discussing with Summit County the possibility of creating a Special Service District (SSD) for the maintenance of lower Tollgate Canyon Rd, 2.4 miles from Interstate 80 to Oil Well Rd and Forest Meadow Road to the southern boundary of the Ranch, up from the Tollgate split. These sections of road are outside the boundaries of the platted Pine Meadow and Forest Meadow Ranch. According to the County, they provide the main access to 1045 properties. About 850 of those are within Pine Meadow and Forest Meadow Ranch.
Should the formation of an SSD go forward, a Board, independent of the PMROA but made up of owners within the canyon, would be created to manage the services provided by the SSD. With the assistance of the County Auditor, a maintenance budget would be determined by the new Board of Property Owners and a flat rate fee would be assessed for each lot. This would remove the maintenance of Tollgate Canyon and Forest Meadow from the exclusive responsibility of the Pine Meadow Ranch Owners Association and allow the HOA to focus on the improvement of roads within our Ranch. It would also ensure that the burden of maintaining these roads is shared among all property owners in the canyon.
As we are still early in this exploration, community input is extremely important for the Owners Association to move in a direction that will be most beneficial to the Owners. Please contact your representative to express support, specific concerns or disapproval. We want to know what all property owners have to say.
Here are some Questions and Answers to get our community discussion started:
1. What is a Special Service District?
A Special Service District (SSD) is a quasi-municipal corporation. The State of Utah, through the SSD, allows for rural property owners to elect for services not provided by the County, yet using the authority of the County, under direction of the owners, to levy fees to fund the services. In essence, it is much like an Owners Association, but with the auditing and legal assistance of the County Offices.
2. Who would be on the Board of the SSD?
There are different methods for the creation of the SSD allowed by the State of Utah. In this situation, the initial SSD would likely be appointed by the Board of County Commissioners and future board members elected by the property owners included.
3. What would be the responsibility of the SSD?
The Special Service District would be responsible for the maintenance of Tollgate Canyon Road, from I-80 to Oil Well Rd. and Forest Meadow Rd from the Tollgate split up one mile. The specific maintenance items would be defined in its’ formation. They would include, but not be limited to: grading, re-paving as necessary, slurry seal, patching, snow removal, signage, etc.
4. How is an SSD funded?
The Board would propose a budget for the maintenance of the road, the county would approve it, and the budget would be divided amongst the property owners at a flat rate for each property.
5. Why don’t the taxes I already pay cover the road?
Several reasons: The County doesn’t own the road or the right-of-way on the road. The road does not meet the Class B standard required for it to be considered as a County road, the County Engineer estimates that it would cost just over $1,000, 000 to bring the 2.4 mile up to Class B standards, and maybe most importantly, our tax rate does not come close to what is required to meet the previous. In fact, Tollgate Canyon owners pay only a few dollars per $100,000 toward County roads. Most of our property tax monies go to the school system which functions autonomously. For a detailed breakdown of where you tax dollars go, look at:
<http://www.pinemeadowranch.org/UserFiles/File/County_Tax%20Allocation_2006.xls>
6. How much will it cost each property owner?
It will depend on the level of maintenance required in that year. A year of simple maintenance for both roads involving snow removal, some slurry seal, fixing potoholes, etc. could be as low as $50,000, divided amongst 1045 owners is $47.85 per lot.
At this time, both roads have 1 mile each (approximately) of deteriorated asphalt that is in need of resurfacing. The current rate for this work is $300,000 per mile. This is a larger expense than is reasonable for a one year assessment, but we’d need to spend it over the next few years to get the roads to a maintainable condition.
So, the cost answer is:
Probably in the range of $100-$200 dollars in the first few years, and then dropping to as low as $50 per year after major maintenance is completed.
(Please note: these are preliminary figures based on the recent maintenance history of the road, and the initial proposed SSD property boundary, including all properties accessed from lower Tollgate Canyon Rd.
7. How will this affect my dues to the PMROA?
Removing the maintenance of this section of road will allow the PMROA to use the existing budget within the Ranch boundaries, effectively increasing the budget by the amount paid to the SSD. It would likely delay the anticipated need for an increase in annual dues paid by the owners.
8. Are tax-exempt organizations required to pay into an SSD?
No, government and churches, both of which own property within the proposed SSD, will be exempted. They may choose to continue to contribute to the Owners Association budget for maintenance of the roads they use as they pass through the Ranch.
To continue the discussion, go to www.pinemeadowranch.org and contact your area rep, log into the discussion forum and post, and look for additional information on the site.
Thanks,
Hutch Foster