Lyon County Road Acceptance Policy workshop advances

YERINGTON - A recent workshop appears to have Lyon County commissioners closing in on guidelines for accepting additional roads for maintenance.

Looking for ways to bring more of the many miles of existing, non-maintained roads into the system, county officials have worked for the past several months with the county's regional transportation committee on a county road acceptance policy.

A draft proposal presented at a Dec. 16 workshop states that any road owned by the county may be considered for future maintenance. However, specific criteria will be taken into consideration, including the number of improved parcels located on the road and current zoning and length of the road. The amount of traffic on each road will determine which roads have priority in the selection process.

Using the number of school age children living on a road as a specific criteria was removed from the proposal when Commissioner LeRoy Goodman pointed out it could appear to be discriminatory to other special groups.

"I think we have a can of worms here and don't think we should use this as a lone criteria," Goodman said. "How about senior citizens and disabled individuals?"

The proposed policy defines a dedicated right of way as land owned by the county for the purpose of a road; a prescriptive right of way as a road that has been maintained by the county and used by the public on a continuous basis.

Roads are also classified according to traffic volume: Local - low volume streets allowing local neighborhood trips; Collector - low volume streets providing circulation between neighborhoods; and Arterial - medium capacity roadways providing intra-community travel.

The board made it clear that the county commissioners will make the final decision on which roads are accepted into the system. The transportation committee will decide where the road funding will be spent and the type of maintenance.

"Acceptance of roads should be done only during specific meetings between the commissioners and the RTC," said Commissioner David Fulstone. "Decisions need to be based on facts, not emotion."

The board recommended road acceptance issues be considered twice a year. A policy, with the recommended changes, will be presented at the Feb. 17 commission meeting.