Council votes to reopen Honey Run
Liability an issue, council hopes to get county to designate an unapproved county road
The Paradise Town Council on Tuesday night voted to reopen Honey Run Road, but it is hoping to get Butte County to agree to designate the road as an unimproved county road.
The decision came after the council engaged in a 42-minute discussion on the item which mostly centered around the town’s liability on its section of Honey Run Road.
Public Works Director/ Town Engineer Marc Mattox presented the accounts with four options on the road that was based in part on community feedback in the transportation master plan process.
The options included making it a two-way road at the cost of $6.1 million which had support from all of the stakeholders.
The other option included a $4.4 million project that would make the road one way southbound only, but that failed to have stakeholder support.
The third option was making it an emergency road only and that would also cost $4.4 million and also did not have full stakeholder support.
The fourth option Mattox laid out for the council was a $1.9 million project that would shut down the road to motor vehicle traffic, which also failed to have stakeholder support.
He told the council that 63% of those who responded to the transportation master plan supported the full reopening of the Paradise portion of the road, which has been closed since Nov. 8, 2018 after the Camp Fire.
He also told the council that the two-way opening had support from the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, Cal Fire-Butte County and the Paradise Police Department along with Butte Creek drainage residents.
Mattox added that last month the town staff along with Butte County Public Works met with Cal FireButte County and Paradise police with the idea that they would build a consensus on the next steps while also trying to find the best way to support the 2023 Wildflower Century bicycle ride plan.
He recommended the town keep the road closed until they could get the new paving done, but create a special permit process for the 2023 Wildflower Century.
He also expects that most of the paving of the road that needs to be done can be done in 2023.
Once Mattox was done with his presentation Councilor Jody Jones immediately had questions about the town’s liability as it relates to opening the road.
“I’m very concerned because we have shared publicly that we know it doesn’t meet safety standards, and then we go ahead and pave it to a lesser standard,” she said. “It still doesn’t have those guardrails you said were needed. And we open it and someone goes off the cliff. What’s our liability?”
Town Attorney Scott E. Huber told the council it may limit its liability by placing signs along the road telling drivers that they proceed at their own risk.
He added that prior to the fire the road was in a similar condition.
“So you’re not increasing your liability over what you already had before,” he said. “You already had this liability before.”
While he acknowledged that the road is a little bit worse, Vice Mayor Greg Bolin noted that it wasn’t in great shape before the fire, and he said he understood why the county would want it open both ways for those in Butte Creek Canyon to escape a fire.
He didn’t seem too concerned about the prospect of a lawsuit.
“You can sue a bologna sandwich. I mean, you can sue for anything,” he said. “I mean yeah there’s that risk. But we had it before.”
The town had originally planned to put guardrails in certain areas of the town portion of the road, but Mattox said staff ultimately decided against recommending guardrails. He said after looking at it, if the town were to guardrail its entire portion but leave the county portion without guardrails, it seemed then that would not be a good idea.
He said that led the staff to recommend that they should save the roadway and deal with the roadway stability issues and get it open.
But Jones said in her career at Caltrans this is where the problem begins. She said if someone goes over the road in an area where the town had previously recommended guardrails it would be liable for damages.
That led Huber to recommend that the council to ask the Butte County Board of Supervisors that if they want the entire road open that they should declare an unimproved county highway.
“Now, is that a perfect defense for you?” he said. “No, but it’s better than nothing.”
In the end, the council voted unanimously to open the roadway with a request of the Butte County Board of Supervisors to declare the road unimproved county highway from the town limits all the way down into Butte Creek drainage in an attempt to limit its liability.