By: Amanda Bok
Davids Court homeowners have agreed to a 60-day deadline for the township to make a decision regarding who will be responsible for the road’s maintenance.
Responsibility for the road has been in question since Davids Court residents asked the township to repave the road one year ago. The process of dedicating the road to the township began in the early 1980s. It is unclear whether or not the process was ever completed.
Since then, the township has removed snow from the road, fixed street lights and done patchwork.
Homeowners met with township officials to discuss the issue Sept. 25.
The township’s position regarding dedication of the road will be announced after 60 days. In the meantime, town officials will search for water plans needed to move fire hydrants, and documents that may fill information gaps on why the dedication process was never completed.
Mr. Watkins also said the town will present homeowners with a list of requirements the road must meet.
Mr. Watkins acknowledged that "at one time a township committee seemed to have an agreement that said the town would take over Davids Court. But that agreement was never completed."
Mr. Watkins said the only explanation for why the road hadn’t officially been taken over between 1983-2000 is that township conditions hadn’t been met.
These conditions include widening the road’s turning radius, increasing the width of right-of-way, changing the parking from perpendicular to parallel, moving fire hydrants, looping dead-end waterlines and improving street lighting.
"The state statute requires that township conditions be met before the road can be accepted," said Assistant Township Attorney Don Sears.
But Property Manager Phyllis Mathey explained that homeowners are waiting to receive a list of necessary changes from the township.
"We are willing to work with township officials," she said, but "we want to know all the things they require before we decide what to do." Up until now the specific changes were never made clear to the association, she said.
The only letter she received so far was from fire officials who wanted to change the location of the fire hydrants and create fire lanes.
"We did do the markings for the fire lanes," she said. But she explained that in order to change the location of the hydrants, they needed the water-pipe plans, which nobody could find.
The plans are not the only thing town officials cannot locate. They are also having trouble finding any document that shows whether the road dedication was made official.
Mr. Watkins explained that the minutes of a 1983 Township Committee meeting indicate the Township Committee and the homeowner’s association reached an agreement of sorts.
"But there is nothing official to back it up," said Mr. Watkins.
"There is no record of what was officially agreed upon and why," said Mayor Debra Johnson, who wanted to wait for more information before making a decision.
"Without (record) of any formal action we don’t know what our obligation is or may be."
Mayor Johnson also had concerns about the tax-burden, arguing that if this road were made public, it would create an unequal tax-burden.
But Mr. Van Hessen argued the taxes of Davids Court residents entitle them to the same town services as other residents. He said the town’s obligation was to continue maintaining the road as it has for the last 20 years.
"The township has de facto taken over the road," he said.
From time to time the township has fixed the potholes, said Mr. Watkins, but he explained that other maintenance fell under the Condominium Service Act.
According to Mr. Van Hessen, however, the snow had been plowed before the act came to be in the early 1990s.
"There’s an aspect that we’re looking at in this," said Mr. Watkins, "We haven’t taken a position yet."
In the early 1980s Davids Court homeowners requested their private road be made public. The then-township engineer said that dedicating the road to the township would require the approval of all Davids Court residents, according to Councilman Ted Van Hessen, a former Davids Court homeowner.
Since resident approval forms were completed in 1989 and the town began maintenance work, such as fixing potholes and tarring cracks on the road, residents assumed it had been made public, said Mr. Van Hessen.
Because it was deteriorating, last year homeowners approached the township for road repairs and were told it was still a private road.
