106-2-2.020 Private Street Option 32

The provisions of Section 106-2-2.010 notwithstanding, the City, and in some cases the applicant, may find benefit from a street being temporarily or permanently private. In those cases, the Land Use Authority may require, or an applicant may volunteer, a proposed street to be privately owned or privately operated and maintained. Development of or along a Private Street shall comply with the following: 1. Private Street open for general public use. A private street that is perpetually open to the public for use and through-passage is allowed only under the following circumstances: 1. The Private Street shall never be closed to the public and no signage shall be erected to indicate or insinuate that the street is not open for public use or passage, except to allow for occasional and routine maintenance necessary to ensure the longevity of the street. 2. The Private Street shall be owned, operated, and maintained in perpetuity by a homeowners association that has a least 40 Dwelling Units, as evidenced by an approved preliminary subdivision plat and recorded homeowners association declaration. If final plat recordation is phased, the homeowners association declaration shall be recorded to the entire legal description of the preliminary subdivision plat at the time the first plat is recorded. The declaration shall include the approved preliminary plat. Special provisions or deviations from this requirement may be approved in a development agreement. 3. At not time shall a Private Street conflict with or create non-routine operations and maintenance demand on any Public Street. 4. A Private Street that complies with this Subsection (a) shall be allowed to count as a Public Street for the purposes of creating a Street Block pursuant to Section 106-2-3 or other Street Block regulations in this Land Use Code. 2. Private Street not open for general public use. 1. No entitlement. An applicant is not entitled to make a street private. The Land Use Authority has full discretion, subject to the regulations herein, to allow or require a street to be private. 2. Prohibition. A Private Street shall not be allowed if: 1. It creates a hardship for other landowners in the area to provide access to develop their land in accordance with the provisions of this Land Use Code, or 2. A Public Street is needed in the location of the proposed Private Street, as determined by the Land Use Authority. 3. Responsibility for construction. The applicant shall pay for and construct the Private Street. 3. Ownership. The final plat shall dedicate the land under the Private Street to the City for the purpose of future conversion to a Public Street at a time the governing body determines a Public Street is necessary, if ever. 1. Street-Parcel dedication waiver. The Land Use Authority may waive this requirement if development or further development on adjacent Lots or Parcels to which the street could be extended is extremely unlikely, or to which future public access offers very little public benefit, or future development benefit, as determined by the Land Use Authority. 1. No Street-Block waiver. A street needed to satisfy the StreetBlock requirements of Section 106-2-3 is not eligible for this waiver unless there is no way in which that street can be configured in the subdivision to support the creation of the Street-Block. 2. Pathway in lieu waiver. In circumstances where current or future public access by vehicle is unwarranted, the Land Use Authority may grant a waiver and in lieu require the dedication and installation of a 12-foot wide public easement and pathway or trail connection. The minimum pathway or trail design shall provide for either a 10-foot wide hard-surface pathway with a maximum average grade of 10 percent, or a single-track dirt trail with a maximum average grade of 18 percent. 3. Waiver requires joint ownership. If a waiver is granted, the street-Parcel shall be held in joint ownership of the owners of all Lots that gain access from it. 2. Street-Parcel configuration. The Parcel being dedicated to the city shall be the length of the Private Street and extend to adjacent developable land or another street regardless of whether the Private Street infrastructure does. The Parcel shall be the same width required for a Public Street right-of-way, and be configured at a grade that will not create an unreasonable burden for future street-building and connectivity given typical grading and construction methods. 3. Transfer of street-Parcel. If adjacent Parcels to which the Private Street could connect reach full build-out or otherwise change in a manner that renders a future Public Street connection extremely unlikely, or if future public access to those Parcels offers very little public benefit, the City, at its sole option, may transfer the land, in accordance with all legal requirements, to the joint ownership of the owners of all Lots that gain access from it. 4. Operation, maintenance, and use. Except after the City assumes responsibility for the street, if ever, the operations and maintenance of the installed Private Street improvements shall be the sole responsibility of the owners of each Lot gaining access from the Private Street, or a homeowners association. The Land Use Authority may allow these owners to restrict access to the street by the general public, except City officials conducting official city business on a City-owned street-Parcel. 5. Building setback standards. The minimum building setbacks shall be measured from the boundary of the City-owned street-Parcel. 6. Private Street required. Unless the City Engineer or the Land Use Authority authorizes otherwise based on the public benefit outweighing the long term operations and maintenance expense, a Public Street is not allowed in the following circumstances: 1. Permanent terminal street. A non-temporary terminal street; 2. Geologic hazards. A street that traverses a geologic hazards study area shall be a Private Street, unless the hazards study, as required by Title 108, Chapter 22, provides compelling evidence that demonstrates the hazard risk to a Public Street is low. 7. Construction standards. Unless otherwise required by the Fire Authority or City Engineer, a Private Street shall meet the following minimum standards: 8. Minimum right-of-way easement: 40 feet Minimum improved travel surface: 24 feet 9. The Planning Commission may approve reduced widths for subdivisions creating six or fewer lots where: Fire access is approved No future street extension is planned No on-street parking is required Adequate snow storage exists 10. Private streets intended for future public dedication shall meet full public street standards. 11. 12. Plat notes. On the final plat, the City-owned street-Parcel, where applicable, shall be labeled and noted as required by Section 106-1-8.020. 13. Recording requirements. At the time of final plat recording, the applicant shall record a covenant to run with the land that provides that: 1. The owners of all Lots that gain access from the Private Street are solely and equally responsible for operations and maintenance of the street. 2. If applicable, that by purchasing a Lot that gains access from a Private Street, the owner acknowledges that the street-Parcel is owned in fee by the governing body for possible future Public Street purposes; but that the governing body assumes no responsibility or liability for the street or for the uses thereof or thereon until and unless, if applicable, the governing body assumes responsibility for it. 3. The owner is responsible for disclosing the nature of the street to prospective purchasers, renters, or lessees. 4. The landowner of record or authorized representative agree to pay a proportionate amount of the costs associated with improving or restoring the street to operational Public Street standards at the time the governing body assumes responsibility for it; and agrees to not protest the creation of a special assessment area or other similar revenue generating mechanism the governing body deems necessary to bring the Private Street to operational Public Street standards.