At your service
Residents originally promised private road would be taken over by county
County residential area after years of being in limbo will finally have their road work done
After waiting close to 20 years, residents of a local subdivision are finally getting their road work done.
Green Acres Road, located across from the Loch Broom Loop, is considered a private road that services 24 lots in a subdivision.
When it was built in the early 1990s by a private developer, residents who purchased lots were promised the 1.1 kilometre road would be taken over by the Municipality of the County of Pictou, but this never happened.
Coun. David Parker said in 1995 the province and county made an agreement that the county would take over local road service in exchange for the province taking on social services.
He said it was a win-win for the county and work was done fairly quickly to determine the hundreds of roads the county would be responsible for in the future.
However, he said, because Green Acres was a new development, it was left off the list and residents were left without any road service when the developer walked away from the area.
“I first came on the scene in the early fall of 2000 when I was around here canvassing and I heard the story from people that they had no road service,” said Parker. “I never heard of it before.”
Parker said he felt it was unfair that similar neighbouring subdivisions had their roads designated as J-class during the switch-over and were being maintained by the province – which would in turn bill the county – but Green Acres was left alone.
Green Acres resident Harold Fraser, a past member of the subdivision’s road committee, said residents in the past would put money into a “kitty” with the county that would pay for snowplowing in the winter and other minor repairs if needed.
However, this contribution started out at $150 but later had to be doubled by each lot owner because there wasn’t enough to cover costs.
“If you have a bad winter, you don’t get much plowing done with that amount,” he said.
Finally, he said, in 2011, county council approved a new bylaw that stated private roads such as Green Acres could be taken over by the county if residents wanted to pay half the cost to bring them up to grade.
However, this meant the Green Acres Road association would need to go back to its residents again and have them agree to the deal.
Simon Underwood, current administrator for the Green Acres road association, said this mean that people would most likely go from paying $300 a year to a total of $7,000 over 10 years toward the upgrade.
“We all knew the roads were coming to a point where we couldn’t upkeep them even though we increased the amount to $300. It was still unlikely we would be able meet the conditions to come. I think everyone was on board to getting this done but there were a number of residents that realized this would be a close call thing to their family resources,” he said. “You have very little money coming in and you are suddenly going to kick up your taxes to $700 which is in addition to what you are paying on your taxes.”
He said when people purchase a piece of property, they rarely ask how the road is maintained – in this case finding out later it is their responsibility.
“Most people see a subdivision, country way of living, nice large lots and 2.3 acres in each lot. They are larger than the average property. You don’t really even think about saying, is someone plowing these roads?” he said. “You suddenly realize this is an issue now.”
Parker said under the new bylaw, residents have 10 years to pay off their share of the project. CF Construction was awarded the tender for the upgrades for a cost of $304,476.61, but there may be few extra costs on top so the final amount is not known yet.
The work will include ditching, building of two cul-de-sacs, culvert work as well as gravelling. Once the upgrades are complete, the road will become the responsibility of the county similar to other J-Class roads.
Parker said the county has also taken steps to prevent residents from being left without road service again in the future. Any new developments must meet the requirements of the bylaw, including a 66-foot rightof-way and servicing at least six residents.
He said anyone who lives on a private road established before the new bylaw was in place can apply to the county to have it taken over. However, they must meet the criteria and have a majority vote from residents in favour of the upgrades being done.
“There are a lot of cottage lanes along the shore that are seasonal and only service three or five people and we didn’t want the job of upgrading all of them.”
Fraser said residents need to see that having upgrades to the roads done as a home improvement project will eventually increase the value of their homes.
“I couldn’t sell my place. Who would come here and buy this place if they knew that no one was serving our roads? Now that the county is taking it over after this is all done, we can say, the county looks after our roads. It was an investment as far as I was concerned.”