CLEAR LAKE RIVIERA — A neighborhood in the Rivieras could soon vote on whether to directly help fund improvements to its roads after the Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) approved of the idea Tuesday.
“We”re willing to pay,” Tom Nixon, a resident living on Tenaya Way in Clear Lake Riviera, told the BOS Tuesday at the Lake County Courthouse.
BOS Chair Rob Brown, whose district includes the subdivision, said some of his constituents have worked in recent months to get support for a potential road benefit zone for the Chippewa Trail county service area (CSA).
The CSA contains about 350 lots and is compromised of more than a dozen county roads, including Cheyenne Drive, Chippewa Trail, Chinook Drive, Ponca Way and Arapaho Way, according to county staff.
The area is west of Highway 281 near Riviera Foods.
Brown presented the current benefit zone proposal to the BOS Tuesday. District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington was absent.
The Lake County Public Works Department estimated construction costs for a “full-depth reclamation and cape seal” in the CSA to be $593,000, according to Brown.
The proposal would result in a “nice road and easy to maintain,” Brown said.
The estimate includes the price of contracting out the work rather than completing it using county staff, he added.
Under the proposal, the county would pay the entire amount upfront but could recoup 50 percent from the CSA property owners.
The roughly $297,000 would be recovered through annual per-parcel assessments of about $143 for a seven-year period, Brown said.
Nearly a dozen neighborhood residents, including Nixon, attended the BOS meeting and advocated for the benefit zone proposal.
The four present supervisors shared in the support by voting unanimously to approve in concept allocating the money for the project.
The BOS also directed staff to move forward with the election process necessary for the benefit zone to become established.
The property owners would have to vote to approve the proposal. They would receive one vote per parcel owned in what would likely be an election by mail, according to county staff.
Approval would require a majority vote in favor of the benefit zone.
In order to move the election process forward, the BOS waived the policy of requiring the landowners to first turn in a petition with support from a majority of property owners.
Public Works Director Scott De Leon said ballots could be mailed out in the next four to six weeks.
