Chip Seal Road Repair, Dust Control and thoughts on creating an HOA.

[JasperFrank]

All of the neighbors have decided to do some road repair on an easement that we all share.. The lower part is paved AC Grindings that I don't think was applied correctly 7 years ago. It has pretty big chunks taken out if it, from heavy trucks, pot holes and places where later repair layers of AC grinding have eroded away making the surface rather uneven. Chip Seal is the recommended repair path by the contractor we are looking at. I've never seen Chip Seal used on an AC Grindings road. Wondering how the Chip Seal will hold up with pot hole repair and the slightly different depths of the roads layers. Also has any one used Lignosulfonate for Dust Control.. I see that there are all sorts of different kinds. Calcium and Magnesium Lignosulfonates and Straight Lignosulfonate. i can't find an explanation of the differences: Other Dust control methods have been ruled out such as Calcium Carbonate. Lastly, if you've been through this same sort of thing in the past and did develop a HOA type road maintenance agreement with your neighbors, did it work out? Or did it lead to all sorts of problems and conflicts? Right now the road maintenance is entirely voluntary. I see future problems with future usage if the fees paid in become non- equitable. For instance if one neighbor substantially increases their use of the road.

 

[RNeumann]

I’ve been down the road maint HOA before. Let someone else die on that hill. It was dirt when you all moved there, unless everyone votes to upgrade you are asking for trouble- especially with a voluntary agreement. Let me guess- folks with gray hair and or in good financial situations want it paved- then they will start in with the whispers of everyone who doesn’t want it or doesn’t pay.......I’d stay out of that mess.

Chip deal is fast and easy- the big cost is to mobilize. Sounds like you have enough road to cover that cost. It can go over existing AC or other road base. Pot holes will always be an issue in weak and or wet areas. Best to fix those areas before the big chip seal job.

I’ve used “Dustoff or Dust-off” with good results. The folks with nice and or low cars don’t like it since it tends to stick to the paint and wheels if it’s wet. But it does keep the dust down. Needs to be applied 1-2x a year.

 

[Diggin It]

All of the neighbors have decided to do some road repair on an easement that we all share.. The lower part is paved AC Grindings that I don't think was applied correctly 7 years ago. It has pretty big chunks taken out if it, from heavy trucks, pot holes and places where later repair layers of AC grinding have eroded away making the surface rather uneven.

Chip Seal is the recommended repair path by the contractor we are looking at. I've never seen Chip Seal used on an AC Grindings road. Wondering how the Chip Seal will hold up with pot hole repair and the slightly different depths of the roads layers.

Also has any one used Lignosulfonate for Dust Control.. I see that there are all sorts of different kinds. Calcium and Magnesium Lignosulfonates and Straight Lignosulfonate. i can't find an explanation of the differences: Other Dust control methods have been ruled out such as Calcium Carbonate.

Lastly, if you've been through this same sort of thing in the past and did develop a HOA type road maintenance agreement with your neighbors, did it work out? Or did it lead to all sorts of problems and conflicts? Right now the road maintenance is entirely voluntary. I see future problems with future usage if the fees paid in become non- equitable. For instance if one neighbor substantially increases their use of the road.

See, paragraphs are easy.

There was a thread not too long ago about the evils of HOAs and how most people despise them. There were a few supporters of them. It didn't go well.

If you want to be part of a government, run for office in hopes to get elected. Don't try to make your own.

 

[JasperFrank]

Some clarifications. Right now there isn't any maintenance HOA contract/lien. I am personally happy with that. I put in what I want to to make the road nice and usable, co-joined, usually, by some other neighbors that also want to pitch in.

What is being presented now, is a Compulsory Covenant to pay into a road fund every month with some sort of enforcement clause. Only two out of 7 of the neighbors are really pushing this. One, that lives above me on the road, built his McMansion, likes to entertain and has two rental properties, the other, that lives below me is trying to subdivide and sell off three home site lots.

RNeumann---- " Let me guess- folks with gray hair and or in good financial situations want it paved- then they will start in with the whispers of everyone who doesn’t want it or doesn’t pay......." You Nailed This, Exactly.

 

[JasperFrank]

I should work on Paragraphs.....
I know...

 

[JK22]

In Colorado, a “Road Association” is used for exactly what you are describing. It’s sole purpose is paying for and maintaining the road. Does not otherwise limit how you can use your property.

 

[Diggin It]

Petition your county government to take it into their road system for maintenance.

 

[s219]

I would avoid the whole thing if you're OK with the way things are now. Why sign up for extra hassles in your life.

Our property association has a private shared driveway that was required for three owners to access their properties. It's basically a shared easement across all of their lands. Paved with asphalt, but only to residential driveway standards. Each property pays $200/year to go into a road fund. We did the math and it will never amount to much in our lifetimes, certainly not the $50-60K it would take to replace the asphalt (and that's in today's dollars). There is concern that construction on the last remaining property could really damage the road and then all those folks would be in trouble.

 

[JasperFrank]

Petition your county government to take it into their road system for maintenance.

That would make the road entirely public. We don't want that. My Grand Father did this with an also non-thru private road he had a long time ago. It was a disaster. Kids would just park and party, and leave all their trash. And Google Earth could drive up with street view.

 

[Nikkorott]

My property is on a private road where there are numerous easements and we had/have a road agreement. The road agreement has been suspended for better than a decade. The guy that was supposed to manage it is trying to subdivide a property and activate the agreement again. My neighbors and I are digging our heels in. Originally what the guy wanted to do was maintain the road and some other stuff while taking a 10% management fee. My suggestion is stay away from anything of the sort. Think about what you're going to do if folks don't pay. Are you going to put a lien on your neighbor? Auction their place off for dues? If it's just voluntary folks don't pay. It's just a reality. On our road, one other neighbor and myself do pretty much all of the work. We fix the pot holes and maintain the road. I spend 4 or 5 days a year doing the heavy work. The other neighbor runs a harrow up and down the road a couple times a month to maintain it.

As far as dust control goes, we don't use it. I was on a job where dust was a touchy issue. We used something called Gorilla-snot that worked pretty well.

 

[JasperFrank]

I would avoid the whole thing if you're OK with the way things are now. Why sign up for extra hassles in your life.

Our property association has a private shared driveway that was required for three owners to access their properties. It's basically a shared easement across all of their lands. Paved with asphalt, but only to residential driveway standards. Each property pays $200/year to go into a road fund. We did the math and it will never amount to much in our lifetimes, certainly not the $50-60K it would take to replace the asphalt (and that's in today's dollars). There is concern that construction on the last remaining property could really damage the road and then all those folks would be in trouble.

There are huge concerns with that, in that there is a property owner that owns a huge amount of land above all the current easement users. And they are not involved with this road improvement thingy. Who knows, that could become a subdivision and all that preliminary construction would just wipe out what we paid in to.

 

[Oldoak]

Petition your county government to take it into their road system for maintenance.

That can be very costly to the people who own property along the road. Some counties require the road to be brought up to the county's road specifications before they would consider taking over a privet road. And like most government run programs, there are no guarantees the road won't fall into disrepair in later years even if taken over by local municipality.

 

[Jim Nelson]

In our area,San Diego,county Ca., we are in an unincorporated community and can have assessment districts which means the county will appraise the project area, bring it up to their standards, then maintain it in future, with the payments coming from assessments added to property taxes.

The bad is the initial agreement must include a majority of property owners and the initial cost of bringing it up to standard can be high. The good is, once established, the annual addition to property taxes is minimal and maintenance is taken care of.

We have a couple of these in our area and everyone is happy with them. We tried to get one going for our approx. 1 mile private road, but the initial cost turned too many people against it.With the high cost of paved road up keep I was all for it but less than half of the others could afford to do the initial work to bring it up to County standards so we gave it up.

The last time our road was done was about 15 years ago and it was only $10,000,it's past due now and would cost over $50,000. Probably won't happen in my lifetime.

 

[JasperFrank]

This is unrelated... sort of. But I had a private agreement with my fire district that cost me $80 a year for fire protection. The neighbors got together and petitioned that we should all be part of a new fire district that would be on our property taxes. I signed that petition, which was then put in to force, cause I was thinking it was a good idea and maybe I'd be paying less. The next year I was assessed at 160 dollars for the fire district. And has been increased ever since. Just say'en.. best intentions don't always work.

 

[Streetcar]

Chip seal will only work with a good base. It is more of a maintenance item rather than paving item.
Asphalt grinding are similar to gravel, not a permanent surface

 

[JasperFrank]

We are expecting some heavy truck usage directly after the Chip and Seal. I think I should not enjoin in this. We have two cars. One is 1800 lbs and the other is 2100 lbs. We have the two lightest cars. And we only use the road, at most, four times a day going up and down. I have a Critter Cam and have been keeping track of who uses the road. My upper neighbors are running 4X what we do per property.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I use "Farmers Hankie" but never figured it might control my summer dust problem.

 

[Diggin It]

We are expecting some heavy truck usage directly after the Chip and Seal. I think I should not enjoin in this. We have two cars. One is 1800 lbs and the other is 2100 lbs. We have the two lightest cars. And we only use the road, at most, four times a day going up and down. I have a Critter Cam and have been keeping track of who uses the road. My upper neighbors are running 4X what we do per property.

There ya' go. Put a Toll Gate up and collect per vehicle passage.

On average, I'd say I drive my road 6 or 8 times per month.. Most days not at all. Sometimes it's 2 weeks or more that I don't even start either car. I think my longest stretch is a little over 30 days. I keep maintainers on both batteries because they sit so long between starts.

 

[oosik]

The dust from my mile long gravel driveway is an insignificant, drop in the bucket, compared to the dust that comes naturally with the SW winds. It would be a fool's errand to consider dust control on my driveway.

I seldom read here of any type of HOA that is touted as a shining success. I would avoid any type of HOA like the plague. HOA or NO - some folks simply will not contribute. With a HOA you are looking for a great big mess. These same folks will respond to a road maintenance district in similar fashion.

I find great pleasure in having my very own driveway. I can do EXACTLY as I wish and nobody else will be bothered.

 

[Diggin It]

Have a question .....

Suppose, just suppose you're on a shared road like this BUT you have a possibility of cutting another, private drive out of the property in another direction, maybe to a different public road. If you're able to do so and no longer use the shared road at all, would you still be expected to contribute to it?