How are Local Access or Public Roads Maintained?
Public Roads: There are approximately 150 miles of Public Rds. in the County and they are typically maintained by adjacent property owners and road users.
This can happen informally or formally:
Informally: In which neighbors work together to hire a contractor or self-perform maintenance and “pass-the-hat” to share in the cost.
Formally: This can also be done through home owners associations (HOAs) or other formal agreements such as LID's to share in the cost of maintenance.
LID’s local improvement District: Formation of a Local Improvement District (LID) provides a method by which improvements can be made on a county road or local access road with the cost of the improvements being assessed against the benefitting properties. Once the roadway project is completed the ongoing maintenance of the roadway either remains with the benefitting properties or will become the responsibility of Clatsop County upon acceptance by the County’s Board of Commissioners.
MLID for Maintenance: Benefiting property owners may want to form a Maintenance Local Improvement District (MLID). A MLID is similar to the LID, but instead of a one-time assessment for a specific task (such as paving a gravel road), the MLID is a mechanism to collect revenue on an ongoing/ perpetual basis for maintaining the road surfaces constructed through a LID.
Forming a MLID early on is valuable because it allows for more frequent road maintenance which preserves the investment made by the LID. County staff will develop a long-term maintenance strategy, including a spending plan, which determines annual rates for each property. The MLID revenue is earmarked for maintenance of a given road and is not available for any other purpose.
County Forces: The County forces will perform minimal maintenance on public roads, which consists of pot hole patching, and brush cutting “only”. County road funds cannot be used to repair public roads. This work is funded by a transient room tax in which we receive a small portion to repair public roads as requested. This has to be scheduled with the road department and may or may not be accomplished in an expedient manner depending on our work load.
Gravel Roads: Gravel road grading can be performed by request by filling out the grading request form. Cost associated with this work will be paid by the requestor. This work is generally performed in conjunction with our yearly grading process in the spring and fall and may or may not be accomplished in an expedient manner depending on our work load.