Arguing that it could set a poor precedent, Hamilton County commissioners narrowly denied a request by residents of a Montlake subdivision to accept Terrace Falls Drive as a county road, with an official stating that the roadway doesn't meet existing county standards.
The margin was 6-5 with Commissioners Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista; David Sharpe, D-Red Bank; Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah; Steve Highlander, R-Ooltewah; Ken Smith, R-Hixson; and Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, voting against acceptance of the road. Doing so would have required the Hamilton County Highway Department to operate and maintain the street and right-of-way.
Highlander said he empathizes with both sides of the argument, adding that five subdivisions in his district had similar requests denied because roads didn't meet specifications.
"Some of them had people that needed ambulances and couldn't get them," Highlander said during a discussion about the item. "If we open this up, I know all five of mine and probably 25 or 30 more across the county will be requesting the same thing. My heart goes out to these people ... but there will be repercussions countywide financially if we do (accept the road)."
Public Works Administrator Todd Leamon told commissioners there are many roads in worse shape that don't meet county standards. Those would cause a financial impact on the Highway Department if the county accepted them, he said.
Noting that the panel recently took a tour of ongoing construction at the Silverdale Detention Center and that there continue to be facility challenges at Hamilton County Schools, Graham said it would be irresponsible to support the item if an issue crops up in the future.
"If we take one, we've got to take them all, and I'm afraid that this is going to be a huge multi-, multimillion dollar detriment to the county," Graham said.
Commissioner Gene-o Shipley, R-Soddy Daisy, represents that part of Hamilton County and vouched for the condition of Terrace Falls Drive, which he stated has never had a pothole.
"You can't find where a pothole has been patched," he said, "and maybe we do need to look in the future at helping some of these roads that are decent to become county roads that pay this kind of revenue to Hamilton County."
Shipley said in a phone call after the meeting that the road was last paved in the late 1990s. Residents on that road pay $84,000 in property taxes each year, Shipley said, an amount that will likely increase as more houses crop up in that neighborhood. Using current prices, he estimated paving the road would cost about $220,000.
"That's a lot of money for residents to come up with," he said.
Shipley expects commissioners will revisit county standards sometime in the near future.
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Leamon told commissioners Wednesday that staff completed a detailed observation of Terrace Falls Drive last June.
"It doesn't meet the current county standard, so we don't make a recommendation to accept," Leamon said.
When the county receives a request to accept a private road, Leamon said, county staff completes an inspection to determine if it meets minimum specifications. If it doesn't, the staff doesn't recommend approval.
"We currently do not have a program or process to recommend acceptance below the standard," he said in an email.
The subdivision that includes Terrace Falls Drive was developed in 1982, Leamon said, and all of its streets were constructed as private roads. Eight of those roads were accepted by the county in 1995.
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He said in an email Terrace Falls Drive doesn't meet the proper width requirements of 26 feet, have a concrete extruded curb, follow guidelines for maximum allowable slope or possess an adequate drainage system.
"Their standards are inflexible and don't consider the conditions and situations in which a road exists," Dennis Curtley, who lives on Terrace Falls Drive and is president of the Montlake Property Owners Association, said in a phone call.
Curtley said the road is 24 feet wide, which he argued is plenty for a cul-de-sac, and putting curbs on a mountain road would turn it into a "water conduit." A section of the road is at a 17% incline, he stated, which for most people would be indistinguishable from the county's standard of 15%.
"If this road can't be accepted by the county, then no road in the county can be accepted," he said.
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6249.
Contributed Photo / Hamilton County commissioners voted 6-5 to deny a request by neighbors to accept Terrace Falls Drive, seen here last summer, as a county road.