To:  Victory Heights Property Owners

 

From:  xxx

            Victory Heights Residents

 

Date:  December 12, 2005

 

Subject:  Victory Heights County Road Maintenance District

 

The purpose of this memo is to survey the owners of property within the Victory Heights area to determine the interest in establishing a County Road Maintenance District (MD) to manage and fund the maintenance of the roads within the Victory Heights area.  All property owners, who require the Victory Heights roads in order to access their properties, are receiving this memo.  If your property has direct access to Highway 260, without using the Victory Heights roads, then you have received this memo in error, and you should so indicate when you return the enclosed survey form.

Background

Until now, the roads within the Victory Heights area have been maintained on an informal basis, with various home owners voluntarily grading the roads from time to time, and adding gravel when absolutely required.  Although this has worked to some extent, it is not an ideal solution.  Expenses have not been equitably shared among all road users, and maintenance has been haphazard.  After heavy rains, there is significant washing and some of the roads are muddy and slippery.  There is no provision for consistent snow removal in the winter.  As a result, access to our properties is inconvenient at times, and emergency vehicle access (e.g. ambulance or fire truck) cannot always be guaranteed. 

 

The Victory Heights area is growing quite rapidly.  At last count, we have 45 residences which depend on the Victory Heights roads for access to Highway 260, and this number is expected to grow quite rapidly over the next few years.  Our current approach for maintaining our roads is no longer acceptable, in light of the growing number of homes these roads must now support. 

 

Given the above situation, over the past few months we have explored the possibility of Navajo County assuming the maintenance of our roads, either by bringing them into the county’s regular maintenance system or by designating them for limited maintenance under the county’s “Primitive Roads” program.  However, after thorough research by the Public Works Director and the County Attorney’s office, it was determined that the Victory Heights roads are not eligible for regular county maintenance or designation as Primitive Roads because our roadway easements were not dedicated to “public use” until 1978.  Arizona state law requires that roads be in existence and dedicated to public use by 1975 or earlier, in order to be maintained by the county.  Roads dedicated to the public after 1975 must first be brought up to current county standards at no cost to the county.

 

We then investigated the possibility of forming a County Road Improvement District for the purpose of bringing the Victory Heights roads up to county standards, so they could then be accepted into the county’s maintenance system.  We learned that current county standards require that a road be paved prior to inclusion in the county’s maintenance system.  It was estimated that the cost for paving our roads, given their current condition, would be approximately $700,000 per mile.  Since we have over three miles of roads, this would come to a total of over $2,000,000.  We feel that even if this were funded with a 25-year bond, the annual cost would be prohibitive given our relatively small current tax base. 

 

Victory Heights County Road Maintenance District

With the exhaustion of the above options, we have been working with Navajo County officials to explore the formation of a County Road Maintenance District (MD) for the purpose of funding and managing the maintenance of the Victory Heights roads.  Although MDs are rare in Navajo County, they have been used with success in Coconino County.  An MD is a type of County Improvement District and is formed under the same statutes as a County Road Improvement District, the only difference being that an MD is formed solely to perform maintenance and not to make major improvements such as paving.

 

Several of you may be familiar with Timberland Acres Special Road District.  This is a type of District which can no longer be formed, but it is an example of a local tax-funded road maintenance program (similar to what we are proposing for Victory Heights) which has been successful over a period of many years.

 

The following are key points for the proposed Victory Heights MD:

  • The purpose of the MD is to provide systematic, on-going, limited maintenance of the Victory Heights roadways (about 3.25 miles).  There is no goal to bring the roads up to county standards.  Instead, the objective is to maintain the roads as gravel roads, with periodic grading as required and snow removal as necessary.  Gravel would be added as required.  Grading would include proper crowning and ditching of the roads to eliminate the washing that currently occurs following major rains.  As funds are available, marginal culverts may be replaced.  All work would be performed by private contractors.
  • In the event that sufficient funds are not available to perform all required improvements in a given year, priority will be given to the “trunk” roadway which is most heavily traveled, i.e. the Victory Heights -> Alserita -> Thistle -> Pine Cone corridor.
  • The MD is formed through a petition to the Navajo County Board of Supervisors and, once formed, it becomes a separate political entity.  The Navajo County Board of Supervisors will be our Board of Directors (this is required by law), but they may appoint a local Advisory Board to deal with the day-to-day operation of the MD.  Note that the Board of Supervisors must approve the annual budget and all expenditures of funds by the MD. 
  • The MD budget is determined annually, and the costs are levied as property taxes on all properties included in the MD.  These costs are allocated based on current assessed evaluations (specifically Assessed Full Cash Value).  Based on the October 31 update of the Navajo County Assessor’s database, all properties proposed to be included in the MD have a total Assessed Full Cash Value of $846,943.  We have obtained estimates from two potential maintenance contractors and an insurance company, indicating that our annual costs will be approximately $16,000 (including road maintenance and liability insurance required for the MD), resulting in a levy rate of $1.89 per $100 of Assessed Full Cash Value.  We have attached an estimate of the MD costs for each of your properties.  (Note that the cost figures provided are based on rough contractor estimates, and on data extracted from the County Assessor’s database.  Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this data, but final costs may vary.)
  • Procedures for day-to-day operation of the MD by the Advisory Board, and for MD property owner participation in Advisory Board and Board of Director actions are still to be determined in conjunction with Navajo County staff.  It is our goal that the Advisory Board will be comprised of selected Victory Heights property owners, and that all MD property owners will have the opportunity to provide inputs on MD operations and budgets through mechanisms such as informal interactions with Advisory Board members and more formal periodic meetings.

Next Steps

We are sending out this survey to determine property owner interest and support for the formation of this MD before we expend additional time and effort on subsequent steps in this process.  Assuming that the survey results indicate sufficient support, we see the following next steps:

  • We will provide the information necessary for the county to develop a formal “Petition to Form District” and “Petition to Incur Expenses”.   This information will include a formal, legal definition of the MD boundaries, which may require some funding to produce.  If there are any property owners who could help provide this definition at little or no cost, please let us know on the survey form.
  • The county staff develops the petitions, based on the information we provide.
  • We then distribute the petitions to all potential members of the MD for signature.  We will need to obtain approval by at least a majority of the property owners or the owners of a majority of the property within the proposed MD.  Our goal is to complete this process in the May, 2006 time frame.
  • Assuming a positive result, the county takes over the actual formation of the MD, publishing required public notices and holding required public hearings.  Assuming a positive result, the MD is formed.  (Property owners who don’t support the formation of the MD, or who don’t believe that their property should be included, will have an opportunity to be heard – but once the MD is formed, everyone within the boundaries will be taxed for the maintenance.)
  • Following formation of the MD, the county puts out a maintenance contract for bids, and awards the contract.  This is the final determination of the annual MD maintenance costs, at least for the term of the contract (the costs could obviously change in future years).  The MD could also have additional operating expenses, such as liability insurance.
  • Prior to November, 2006, the Arizona Department of Revenue and County Assessor are notified of the formation of the MD, and its annual costs, so that taxes can be levied.  Note that according to this schedule, taxes would not actually be levied until late 2007, so that funds will not actually be available to our MD until that time. 

Action Required

Please review the attached material, and then return your survey response in the enclosed, self addressed envelope.  If you have any questions, please contact Sam xxx or Jim xxx .  You can also send email to Jim at xxx

 

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this matter.  We would like your survey responses as soon as possible, but no later than January 15, 2006.

 

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

xxx                                           xxx

 

 

Attachments:

  1. Frequently Asked Questions
  2. Proposed MD Boundary
  3. Map of Roads Proposed to be Maintained
  4. Cost Estimate for Each Property (only for those you own)
  5. Survey Form (for you to complete and return)
  6. Self Addressed Envelope (for return of the Survey Form)