Private Community Residents To Hear About Proposed Road Work

By John Voket

The prospect of involving the town’s Highway Department in providing infrastructure improvements to roadways in one of the several private lakeside communities in Newtown is fraught with challenges, because it involves collective buy-in from the residents — literally.

That is the reason behind why all residents and property owners on Lakeview Terrace, the private community of Cedarhurst, and the Lakeview neighborhoods are being called to an informational meeting regarding improvements to Lakeview Terrace.

That meeting will be held at the Newtown Municipal Center at Fairfield Hills on Tuesday, November 23, at 7 pm.

According to a memo sent to all affected residents and property owners by First Selectman Pat Llodra, the access road known as Lakeview Terrace is often in a state of disrepair.

By local ordinance, the town must provides routine maintenance and plowing to the extent possible, to guarantee emergency access to all homes in the community. But Mrs Llodra said that maintenance is only delivered within the scope of limited resources, and considering the status of that road is private, not public.

“As with all private roads in Newtown, our town responsibility is to ensure that Lakeview Terrace remains passable for emergency vehicles,” the first selectman wrote.

This past spring and summer, town engineers Ron Bolmer and Dave Bratz conducted studies for improving the drainage and surface conditions on Lakeview Terrace. They have now developed plans for such improvements and have calculated potential costs for the repairs.

A longstanding town policy for the upgrading and major improvements of private roads calls for a partnership with affected property owners and residents.

Past practice is that the town will contribute 50 percent of the cost, which then has to be matched through the efforts of the private parties who reside or own property in the area. And successful partnerships for road repair have already existed for years with other private communities, namely Cedarhurst and Shady Rest, according to Mrs Llodra.

While any improvements in the event of such a partnership could still be years away, Public Works Director Fred Hurley told The Bee that this initial meeting is simply to meet interested residents, to help review with them plans for improvements, and to discuss the related costs for the project.

Mr Hurley said those costs could not be provided ahead of the meeting, because they will be dependent on residents’ cooperation and willingness to supplement the work. He did say that several options are available, but they will have to be individually reviewed before solid cost expectations for all involved can be estimated.

Land Use Director George Benson explained that in 1968, the town enacted Ordinance 108-1, which guaranteed the town would provide safe access for emergency services to every residence regardless of whether the home was on a public or private road. And by virtue of the town providing such maintenance, Mr Benson said it is often incorrectly assumed that private roads are subject to comprehensive public works attention.

But he said any deed holder in any private community can reference their legal documentation — and should be able to see where the deed simply guarantees a right to pass and repass on subjected roadways. Mr Benson added that no deed would entitle those with property interests on private roads to the full scope of services afforded to public roads.

He said that in the past, the town has attempted, sometimes successfully, to make private roads public.

“I would love to see all these roads made public to [affect] a uniform standard of maintenance,” Mr Benson said.

Mr Hurley said that even if such proposed improvements, and the partial cooperative underwriting from residents are mutually agreed upon, any road project still has to go through the process of approval, along with the taxpayer-generated funding that will be added to the overall cost to complete the program as proposed.

“We hope this meeting will be the first step in getting the information out there, and maybe we’ll be able to at least gauge the initial level of interest on the part of the home owners involved to see the work get done,” Mr Hurley said.